Arnab-leaks: a bloody trail of India’s false flag ops By Altaf Hussain Wani

India, a country riven in racial politics, has since long been a subject of debate all around the world especially after rising tides of xenophobia, intolerance and communal violence shook the foundations of the so-called secular state governed by the right wing radical party the BJP that thrives on communalism. However, the recent whatsapp disclosure of the India’s firebrand ‘journalist’ Arnab Goswami has put the country back on the world media’s radar screen as the revelations made by Goswami during a chat with Pratho Dasgupta the incarcerated head of ratings company Broadcast Audience Research Council(BARC) virtually takes the lid off the dangerous nexus between the Modi-government and Indian jingoistic media that played a role of a conduit for the right-wingers to advance their self-centered agenda.

Goswami, the co-owner and editor in chief of Indian Republic TV, is known for supporting Modi and his neo-nationalist policies. His chat disclosure, which is now trending on the social network sites has taken many by surprise especially the Indians who were fooled by none but their own government that shamelessly stage-managed the Pulwama Attack in Kashmir and did not even hesitate to blow to bits the bodies of its own soldiers just to create a war-hysteria against Pakistan and to extract strategic benefits out of it.

The chat-disclosure also lays bare the triangular nexus between the BJP, war-mongering journalists and the extremist elements within the Indian security establishment who orchestrated this extremely wicked plan to benefit BJP in elections. Excerpts of the conversation amply establish the fact that Goswami who played the role of a broker in this whole episode knew about Pulwama attack and Balakot Airstrike in advance. The whatsApp chat trail shows that the conversation between Goswami and Dasgupta took place on 23 February 2109 three days before the Indian government resorted to its overambitious false-flag operation against Pakistan on 26 February 2019 bringing the two nuclear armed nations on the brink of war.

A day after the episode, excerpts from the alleged chats show, Dasgupta texted Goswami asking whether this was what he was hinting at. Answering in the affirmative, Goswami added: “More to come”. All this shows that there is a connecting thread right from the beginning till the end of this drama that pushed the region into the brink of nuclear conflict.

However, the question that boggles one’s mind is how come a journalist like Goswami got access to such highly classified details pertaining to ‘national security’. How can operational plans be known to anyone in the public domain before the event? Was it (information leakage) a deliberate attempt or truly a breach of national security?  This is what every conscious citizen of India needs to ask its government that has been doing politics by feigning love for religious and cultural nationalism.

One more worrisome aspect that goes largely unnoticed is the growing extremism within the rank and file of the Indian army. The way Pulwama attack was planned and executed makes it even more visible. It highlights yet another horrible face of the Indian army that does not feel any guilt or remorse in killing their own fellows.

The credit for exposing the brutal face of the Indian Army goes to Mr. Goswami and in particular the BJP that over the years fostered militancy and religious extremism within the Army and police.

 Apart from killing its own troops the Indian Army and police are in a habit of staging false-flag operations that besides casting a dark shadow over the regional peace and security had created an environment of hostility between the two nuclear neighbours.

It may be noted that many independent observers, defense analysts and even the political dissidents within Indian had warned about the possibility of such false-flag ops by the BJP government prior to Indian elections. But nobody had an inkling that the BJP in its lust for power would kill their own sainks (soldiers) it often feigned love for. However, Indian history is awash with such momentous diversionary incidents which were unabashedly carried out by the Indian establishment and its secret agencies with malicious intentions to defame Pakistan and down-grade down grade indigenous freedom struggle of Kashmir.

Since 2001 till 14-Feb 2019, nearly ten major false-flag operations that including the Indian parliament (2001), Godhra (2002), Samjhota Express(2007), Mumbai (2008), Mecca Mosque and a 2008 blast in a Malegaon (Maharashtra state) mosque, Pathankot (2016), Uri (2016) and Pulwama attack, were carried out by the Indian secret agencies. Every time India let loose its jingoistic media to lay blame on Pakistan and its premier intelligence agency the ISI but the internal probes, conducted by their own agencies, later on proved that these attacks were an inside job. Likewise the incident like Chatisinghpora  and Wandhama in which religious minorities of Kashmir were targeted by Indian intelligence agencies for the same benefits.

Ironically, all these incidents of terror were used as a beating-stick to blame Pakistan to tarnish the country’s image at international level. While on the other they were used as a pretext to give a communal colour to Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle for right to self-determination and to link it with international terrorism. Above all New Delhi’s persistent policy of using the so-called terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy has pushed the region into a quagmire of uncertainty leaving little room for dialogue and diplomacy to address the issues that have been bedeviling Indo-Pak relations since the past several decades.

Now that the Arnab#gates have pulled the mask off from the BJP’s ugly face it is the responsibility of the international community in particular the Indian civil society to hold its government accountable for the crimes it had committed against its own people. It also provides a window of opportunity for the government of Pakistan to let the international community know about the conspiracies New Delhi has been hatching to destabilize Pakistan and its malicious attempt to jeopardize peace and security in the South Asian region.

Writer is Chairman Kashmir Institute of International Relations and Vice Chairman JKNF can be reached, Chairman@kiir.org.pk  saleeemwani@hotmail.com