Narendra Modi’s sinister game was exposed when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan came out openly in support of Modi’s second term as Prime Minister of India. Suspicion about some clandestine understanding between Indian Prime Minister and the Pakistani establishment resulting in increased terrorist attacks in Kashmir has prevailed for some time. The suspicion got strengthened when the Pathankot Air Base, one of the armed forces establishments with the highest security, was attacked and the Modi government invited Pakistan’s ISI operatives to inspect it in the name of helping Indian investigating agencies. Incidentally, the armed forces have their own effective mechanism to investigate such enemy actions but the government insisted on civilian National Investigation Agency (NIA) being involved with the investigation.
National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval is behind Modi’s strategic decisions. During his career in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) he had spent over half a dozen years as intelligence operative in Pakistan. Apparently he maintained contacts with Pakistani operatives even after retirement and strengthened these contacts on being appointed NSA in 2014. Over the years he has developed what is now known as Doval Doctrine about Kashmir. Bereft of blah blah, the Doctrine simply means use of more and more force to suppress any voice of dissent with the apparent objective of making Muslim-mukt (or at least a Muslim minority) Kashmir. Hence his suspected complicity with the Pakistani establishment and the increased number of terrorist attacks with more casualties in Kashmir which helps justify the more indiscriminate use of force by the armed forces.
In July 2014, journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik had a meeting with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in the latter’s fortified hideout in Pakistan. Vaidik was then very close to Modi and Doval, though now he writes critically of Modi government. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed had, along with Abdullah Azzam, founded in1987 Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, a group with roots in the Jamait Ahl-e-Hadis.
This organisation spawned the jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1990 with the help of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officers. Lashkar’s primary target is Jammu and Kashmir. Saeed is often quoted as saying, “There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.”
Hafiz Saeed lives in Lahore in a ‘fortified house, office and mosque’ that is guarded by Pakistani police and his supporters and closely watched by ISI officers. It is said that no one is allowed near Saeed’s ‘fort’ without the approval of the ISI. How did Vaidik get clearance of the ISI? Apparently with the help of Ajit Doval. There was a rumour that Vaidik had gone to give ‘hush money’ to Hafiz Saeed to ensure that he does not create any trouble during Modi’s visit to Pakistan.
Pulwama and Balakot on the eve of Lok Sabha elections cast further doubts on the roles of Modi and Doval. Hari Shankar Vyas, Editor of Hindi daily ‘Naya India’, who was once an ardent supporter of Narendra Modi, wrote in one of his columns that NSA Doval was squarely responsible for Pulwama terrorist attack as well as for providing wrong information (coordinates) about Balakot target to Indian Air Force with the result that terrorists and the madarsa they were staying in escaped in the attack. Even the family members of some CRPF jawans killed in Pulwama attack have not believed the propaganda being mouthed by Modi and wanted the government to provide evidence of terrorists having been killed in Balakot.
In view of all this, why should Imran Khan expose Modi by lending support to him for a second term as PM? There is only one possible explanation. Modi and ruling party president Amit Shah had started mentioning Pakistan too often in their election speeches with the implication as if Pakistan was helping opposition parties in the elections and there will be celebrations in Pakistan if Modi was defeated. It brings international embarrassment to the Prime Minister of country if the Prime Minister of a neighbouring country accuses him of working to defeat the ruling party. Perhaps that prompted Imran Khan to state that Modi’s return to power would be good for India-Pakistan relations.
This served the purpose eminently. Both Modi and Shah were stunned and Modi took several days to utter the word Pakistan. But there, too, he played a mischief by blaming Pakistan for only two terrorist incidents – at Uri and Pulwama. He did not even mention Pathankot which, though, did not witness as many casualties as Pulwama but was more serious as the terrorists there had penetrated the highest security establishment. The sordid fact is that terrorist attacks and killings in Kashmir have tremendously gone up after Modi became Prime Minister and made Ajit Doval his NSA. According to a written reply given by Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in Lok Sabha on February 5 this year, there has been an increase of 93 per cent in the number of security personnel killed in terrorist incidents in Jammu and Kashmir between 2014 and 2018 while the terrorist incidents during the period grew by 176 per cent.
