Why PM Narendra Modi must answer -Nation wants to know about Balakot air strike: who leaked it?

Less than two months later on the campaign trail, Modi told a cheering crowd in Gujarat’s Amreli: “Tamey khush, desh khush”

TT   |  20.01.21 :  Prime Minister Narendra Modi had echoed in almost “exact words” after the Balakot bombing the sentiment attributed to the government before the strike in a purported chat by Republic TV promoter Arnab Goswami with a rating agency boss, a video clip from the 2019 campaign trail shows.

“Bigger than a normal strike…. On Pakistan the government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated. Exact words used,” the chat attributed to Goswami (and so far not denied by him) on February 23, 2019, says. Three days later, the Balakot bombing was launched.

Less than two months later on the campaign trail, Modi told a cheering crowd in Gujarat’s Amreli: “Tamey khush, desh khush (You are happy, the country is happy)….”

The use of similar words does not prove anything. Besides, Modi might have merely echoed the mood he had gauged in the country after the Balakot bombing.

But the sentiment attributed to the government before the strike and picked up by Modi after it raises inescapable questions.

⚫ On Tuesday, Goswami made light of the chats without questioning their authenticity. The crux of his argument was he had shared only information available in the public domain. Now, imagine that the same chat was found on the phone of a human rights activist or an anti-CAA protester just three days before the Balakot bombing.

Imagine the witch-hunt he or she would have had to face, imagine the verbal lynching he or she would have been subjected to in India’s sanctimonious, super-patriotic television studios. Imagine the first law that would have been invoked then, the dreaded UAPA or the all-season favourite that deals with treason?

⚫ Was making the people elated just before the elections the strategic objective of the Balakot strike? If not, why did an unnamed but seemingly well-informed source or sources in the government make it a point to tell that to Goswami? Why did Goswami underscore that “people will be elated” were the “exact words”? Was it because he got the impression that making people elated was the overriding objective of the impending retaliation?

On Tuesday night, Goswami tried to defend himself by saying “two things were made public at that time, officially — 1. That there will be an extremely tough military retaliation by India. 2. That the time and place of the retaliation will be chosen by India.” He did not mention the “exact words” that he was so proud to share in the chat: “The government is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated.”

⚫ Cross-border missions always involve high risk. No nation, including Israel and the US, can claim beforehand with certainty that the mission objective would be accomplished. Yet, the government purportedly told Goswami that the people would be elated. Does it mean that the government had only a modest tactical objective from the raid, which it was sure of accomplishing? It is pertinent to recall that one Union minister later said the purpose was not to cause human casualty.

⚫ Few political parties will raise this but the fact remains that it has not been conclusively established till now that “a very large number” of terrorists were killed as the Modi government had said then. In fact, the toll attributed to unnamed Indian “sources” fluctuated wildly from 400 to 350 to over 300 to 250. Later, a military officer said such kills were not counted.

The Pakistan government had said only trees were damaged. Reuters, the news agency, reported that during a conducted tour to the Balakot site after a six-week delay, journalists and diplomats didn’t get enough time from the Pakistan Army to make any kind of informed assessment. On the trek up to the compound, the visitors were shown craters that the allegedly wayward missiles had created on the surrounding hillsides.

The toll assumes significance because in military operations nothing can be left to chance. If information was available on a messaging service that the Indian government was preparing for “something bigger than a normal strike”, questions must be asked whether that message was forwarded to others and whether it did help Pakistan to take the terrorists to a safer place before the strike. Many Indians have been vilified as Pakistani agents and told to migrate to Pakistan for saying far less in public.

Goswami claimed on Tuesday night that he was merely passing on to Partho Dasgupta, the then BARC chief executive, “publicly available information and thousands of journalists reported, wrote, broadcast and analysed in the same direction after Pulwama”.

That may be so but Goswami did not name anyone else who quoted the “exact words” of the government in any report. Besides, Goswami has been known to be extremely close to the Modi government. His unsolicited and unqualified assertion about national security affairs — if it reached more ears — would have had graver consequences than a speculative report by a journalist. Again, whether the information reached more people can only be established by a formal probe.

⚫ On Tuesday night, Goswami sought to pass the buck to the Modi government, too. “There are thousands of articles from that time suggesting a hard and tough response from the Indian forces. The government stated the same in interviews to our network and elsewhere, which were broadcast across the world,” he said.

In that case, Dasgupta, Goswami’s purported chat-mate and fellow member of the mutual admiration club, does not appear to be an avid follower of Goswami’s network — at least that is what the chats suggest.

On February 23 at 10.31pm, when Goswami warmed up to make the big boast, Dasgupta appeared clueless.

“On another note something big will happen,” says the chat attributed to Goswami.

“Dawood?” asks Dasgupta.

The then BARC boss could not have been more off the mark.

“No sir Pakistan. Something major will be done this time,” Goswami replies, according to a supplementary chargesheet filed by Mumbai police in an alleged TRP-fixing case.

So, in spite of the “thousands of articles”, what Goswami allegedly passed on was indeed news to at least one Indian, that too one who was paid to track television.

Which is reason enough to launch a formal probe, especially when Modi likes to project himself as the foremost champion of national security.