Mohammad Jamil
A typical fictional novel titled “Operation Jinnah” authored by Shiv Aroor editor/anchorperson India Today TV was published in India in May 2017 to malign Pakistan. It was an effort to glorifying Indian Special Forces undertaking covert actions, what they called, surgical strikes. The fictitious events purport plots indicating Pakistan sponsoring terrorist activities inside India and project Indian retaliatory acts to eulogize the Indian Special Forces. The author has close links with Indian military propaganda wing RAW, and has previously co-authored another book titled “India’s Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes”. The novel Operation Jihhah starts with an aborted nuclear attack by the Indian government on Pakistan in retaliation to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Fast forward, it then moves to the present time Kashmir, where three friends on a holiday face a terror attack that kills two of them and results in the abduction of the third.
The fictional character abducted girl Varuna is the daughter of the chief of the Indian Navy named Admiral Rana, whom the kidnappers have a score to settle with. This starts off a rollercoaster ride of a rescue act, with two female officers of special forces, snappy dialogues, and a granular look at the military and political drama that unfolds as the abduction becomes a diplomatic crisis. Even those critics that are not especially enamoured of military jargon and details of weaponry are impressed by the author’s demonstrable mastery of his subject, details and plot. But it is not difficult to understand that it was combined effort of Indian military establishment and the RAW who have given the author guidelines to produce the fictional account. Anyhow, Operation Jinnah is the first Indian fiction’s military heroes and heroines.
It appears that India is taking recourse to thriller novel to divert attention of the people from insurgencies in North-Eastern states and freedom struggle in IOK, and also to boost the sagging morale of the nation. Modi government has unleashed wave of oppressive activities against liberals/Dalit activists/journalist and lawyers who are critical of his policies. Reportedly, they have been booked under fabricated charges ranging from collaborating with Urban Maoists to conspiring to murder PM Modi. Such moves are part of BJP’s 2019 Poll strategy to gag the dissenting voice with state power. The police raids on the homes and offices of lawyers, trade unionists, writers and rights activist go to prove that so-called democratic India is turning into a fascist and autocratic India under Modi. Indian intelligentsia feels that the aim is to silence those who have raised their voice against the abuse of state power and to warn others against opening their mouths.
Indian media recently carried the unauthentic news citing a news item in New York Times about Pakistan Army’s offer for talks with Indian Army. It is a deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan Army, which has succeeded in neutralizing and uprooting Indian proxies affecting the general law and order situation of the country. It also seems to be frustration of Indians on successes of Pakistan Armed Forces in eradicating terrorism from Pakistan. The arrests of prominent Indian activists last week sparked condemnations across the world. But as details of police attempts to link them to an international assassination plot are starting to emerge, they have become a laughing stock. For media, the alleged plot to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a cabal of “urban Maoists”, and a gullible mass of low-caste Dalits ready to destabilise the country has provided ratings-friendly boost to the spin ahead of next year’s critical general elections.
But for critics of the right-wing government, the latest developments have been a stark warning that the crackdown on dissent in the world’s largest democracy is reaching unlikely quarters – from a small, riverside town in western India to academic seminars in Paris. The expansion of the plot from a nondescript small town to “human rights conventions” and “universities in Paris” underscores the widening assault on free speech since Modi’s Hindu right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came to power in 2014. A wave of nationalism driven by hard line Hindu groups has seen government critics, including journalists and “rationalists” who question religious superstitions, killed. The latest “urban Naxalites” plot – as it’s called by the Indian media after a Maoist rural movement that began in the 1960s – has seen the morphing of two issues, both critical to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.
It grabbed the international headlines last week, when five prominent activists – including one of India’s leading human rights lawyers – were arrested on August 28, in simultaneous, multi-city police raids. The activists included Telugu-language poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Farreira in Mumbai, Gautam Navalakha and Sudha Bhardwaj in New Delhi and a neighbouring town. The high-profile arrests sent shock waves across the country, sparked international condemnations, and has seen a daily drip of investigative news reports examining the police’s procedural failures, including flouting India’s criminal law. The roots of the case however go back to December 2017 and are centred around India’s caste politics, a powder-keg issue in a country where, it’s often said, citizens don’t cast their vote, they vote their caste.
