Kulbhushan: Another ‘K’ word between India & Pakistan

With Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death penalty case taking one interesting turn a day and Pakistan sticking to its ever denial mode, the suspicion about Jadhav being already executed is growing stronger.

If who owns Kashmir was not enough, then the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav has proved to be yet another bone of contention between India and Pakistan thus further souring the already bitter bilateral relations.

On top of this, the haste with which Pakistan is proceeding in this case shows the level of nervousness thus giving rise to the doubt that Jadhav has already been killed and that this case is a “pre-mediated murder”.

When Ajmal Kasab was found guilty of killing innocents and conspiring against India, he was given a fair chance to be represented by a lawyer though the government of the day received a lot of resistance from the Opposition on the same. Kasab’s case was fought for a long time and then was sentenced to death. It was not a mere suspicion as in the case of Jadhav that led to the order to hang Kasab to death. Even after he was sentenced to death, Kasab was given a chance to write to Pakistan to get legal help if he wished to. Interestingly, Pakistan was written to but no reply ever came on even seeking consular access to Kasab.

What appears in the case of Jadhav is that Pakistan has only a “botched up” video footage as evidence, the veracity of which is questionable. Even in the footage, several things point out that the confession was forceful in nature and that Jadhav was made to read out from a teleprompter of a sort.

However, a pressing concern is that this issue has turned into yet another glitch in the path of smoothening bilateral relations with our neighbours. While India will not lose much even if the wrinkles are not straightened, a palpable tension in the borders and a constant fear of possible terrorist attacks in the cities will always keep us on our toes.

With the world force behind India, it is evident that Pakistan’s stand on the issue is a farce and that with every passing day, it is becoming more evident that the country is in a sticky spot and will soon stop at a dead end. However, going by the nature of attacks the country has orchestrated through its intelligence service ISI who employ terrorists to blow themselves up, what is fearful is that the country might charge all its evil forces as a last resort in order to escape from being cornered.

It is evident that the Kulbhshan Yadav case is yet another Kashmir issue as India has warned of dire consequences if Pakistan flouts the Vienna Convention norms. However, the question is, what will India do if Pakistan flouts the convention’s norms? Is a war in the offing?

To watch the International Court of Justice's proceeding on Kulbhshan Yadav click on the video above.