Jindal balm for Pakistan ties? No!

Bengaluru: Reports by Pakistan television channels ARY and Dunya that Indian steel magnate Sajjan Jindal met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday during a secret visit to Pakistan as part of back channel talks that had been resumed by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to plead the case of alleged Indian ‘spy’ Kulbhushan Jadhav, are being laughed out of court by insiders close to the developments.

“It’s the last thing India would do, especially when it’s obvious that it’s the Pakistan military that holds all the cards when it comes to Jadhav and not the civilian government,” they said  

Other officials who have dealt with Pakistan also said that back channel talks are rarely held in India or Pakistan but in a more neutral venue, and that the timing was not appropriate for India to reach out to Pakistan's civilian leadership given that it was the Pakistan army-ISI that was “testing India on J&K”.

The report by the Pakistan channels state that Jindal was accompanied by two associates, and that they took off from Kabul and landed in the Pakistani capital on board a special plane. It fails to clarify why there was a need for a "special plane." It also does not take into account that if they did arrive on such a flight, it would have been no secret, as it would have required clearance from the security agencies.     
    
Hours after the meeting where the Indian businessman, accompanied by his wife, headed to Murree to meet with PM Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of the Pakistan premier scotched reports of the meeting being secret, saying instead that it was a private visit. "Private visit - since 'PM' a friend," she tweeted.

The news channels also claim that the "secret meeting is to prepare common ground before the two prime ministers meet on the sidelines of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Jindal and the Sharifs are long term business associates and friends. In fact, contrary to claims that Jindal is "a close affiliate of Indian premier Narendra Modi",  Jindal is not considered a member of the prime minister's inner circle of advisers, with some saying that cases instituted against the Indian steel giant by the Modi government would make it difficult for the two men to be "friends."

The TV report further attempts to buttress Jindal's proximity to the Indian PM, by saying he was part of the delegation that visited Pakistan during the impromptu visit of PM Modi back in December 2015. It states, "At that time, he also tweeted 'In Lahore to greet PM Sharif on his birthday', adding "Jindal reportedly hosted a lunch in favour of prime minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to India back in August 2014."  

Pakistan has stepped up a campaign in recent weeks, trying to implicate India in the growing separatist insurgency in Baluchistan that it has been unable to contain, and holding up Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Navy officer, as being a spy sent by India to foment trouble in the troubled southern Province.

To buttress its claims further, only days after a visit by the new U.S. Secretary of State H. R. McMaster, an Afghan war veteran, who reportedly lectured Pakistan on its dubious track record, Pakistan army's media wing, Inter Service Public Relations  released a confessional video of Ehsanullah Ehsan where he claims involvement of Indian intelligence agency RAW and Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security in carrying out subversive activities inside Pakistan.

Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday said that the real face of India had been exposed after the confessions of alleged Research and Analysis Wing agent Kulbhushan Jadhav and Tehrik e-Taliban Pakistan spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan.