Fai Episode: Intellectuals, Govt to be Blamed

Once again, Pakistan’s nefarious covert and overt attempts to defame, denigrate and destabilize India has come to the fore with the recent arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, by U.S authorities for collaborating with the notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), by funneling money to influence American policy on Kashmir.

Fai was arrested by the U.S Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) from his home in Fairfax, Virginia. According to the FBI affidavit, Fai established and ran the Kashmiri American Council (KAC) from Washington at the behest of ISI to lobby on Kashmir at Capitol Hill.

For almost 20 years, the KAC has been organizing several anti India activities including printing and circulating propaganda pamphlets and other literature on alleged human rights violation in Jammu and Kashmir, holding national and international seminars to which participants form several countries including India were invited, lobbying against the Indian government with the American government and lawmakers and on the sidelines of international human rights conferences as also trying to influence U.S politicians by contributing to their election funds.

The practice of intelligence agencies running and funding non governmental organizations particularly in foreign countries to propagate and lobby for their particular view point has been an existence since World War days and played a key role in the U.S campaign against the Communist Soviet Union. The U.S Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is itself known to have floated and funded several such agencies across the globe.

The revelation about Fai being an ISI agent also does not come as a surprise to most Indians as Pakistan has been engaged not only in such notorious anti-India propaganda but also proxy war against the country through terrorists, trained, armed and funded on its very soil.

However, what has come as a shock is the proximity Fai seems to have enjoyed with several leading Indian journalists and intellectuals. They include Justice Rajinder Sachar , author of the Sachar Committee report on the state of Indian Muslims, Dilip Padgaonkar, one of the three Interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir appointed by the UPA government, Kuldip Nayar, eminent journalist and former Indian High Commissioner to Britain, Ved Bhasin, Editor of Kashmir Times, Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Executive Editor, Kashmir Times and peace activist, Harinder Baweja, Editor (Investigations) with Headlines Today, Gautam Navlakha, democratic rights activist and Editorial Consultant, Economic and Political Weekly, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, human rights activist, Praful Bidwai, noted columnist, Rita Manchanda, Programme Executive of South Asia Forum for Human Rights, and Professor G. R. Malik, Head of Dept, English at the Central University, Kashmir.

These journalist and intellectuals not only participated, some of them actively, in the seminars organized by Fai, but were part of even a jury for All India Level Essay competitions on Kashmir organized by the Kashmiri Action Council.

What is more, Fai was successful in including some of them in the drafting committee of his annual event called, ‘International Kashmir Peace Conference’.

A resolution titled “Washington Declaration” adopted at the 2010 conference and drafted allegedly among others by Nayar said the participants “unanimously” expressed grave concern over the “deteriorating” human rights situation in Kashmir and urged the Indian government to withdraw its armed forces from civilian populated areas. It also sought an impartial commission to investigate “killings in a transparent manner.”

Among others in the drafting committee as members for the 2009 resolutions were Bhasin and Navlakha.

According to an overview of the KAC conference sent to the media after the 2009 event by Fai, Bhasin was quoted as advocating for Kashmir as an independent state in South Asia.

"The only solution is an independent state in South Asia. The status quo is not a solution; the division of the state is not a solution," Bhasin was quoted as saying.

Speaking in the session, 'When Peaceful Protests Fail, What Next?', Navlakha had allegedly warned that if the aspirations of Kashmiris continued to be ignored, the armed struggle could start again "which will have repercussions for all of South Asia".

If the proximity of these intellectuals and thought leaders with the blatantly anti -Indian Fai came as a surprise to many, what was shocking was the indifference with which they dismissed and defended this serious matter. “Google was not available then” was the most simplistic response that Padgaonkar gave even as he insisted that he did not have the faintest of idea about Fai’s affiliation with ISI.

Reacting to Padgaonkar’s statement, his fellow Interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir M M Ansari asked “How can you join a conference without knowing the credibility of the individuals and the institutions?.”

While refusing to comment on his advocacy of an independent Kashmir state, Bhasin merely stated that he was not aware that ISI had any links with the conferences organized by Fai.

There cannot be a more specious argument about ignorance of basic facts by such eminent intellectuals who have a wide network of contacts world wide.

In fact, way back in 1995 itself, separatist leader Hasim Qureshi had exposed Fai’s links with Pakistan’s ISI in his book ‘Kashmir: The Unveiling of Truth’. Qureshi, who hogged the headlines for hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1971 to Lahore, wrote that Fai and Ayub Thakur (now dead) were at the forefront of fund raising campaigns for Jamat-E-Islami and its militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in US and UK respectively.

These intellectuals could also have gathered information about Fai from the Indian mission in Washington as they were well aware of KAC’s nefarious activities. In fact, in its invitations sent to media before its 2010 annual conference, the KAC had listed the Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar among its invitees, but Indian Envoys never participated in these conferences as they not only knew who KAC was working for but also such conferences were always Pakistan centric and heavy with anti India agenda.

Besides, many Indian journalists and intellectuals did not fall into the ISI trap. Siddharth Vardarajan of The Hindu, who was listed as a panel speaker for the 2010 annual conference did not attend stating he was pre occupied with another assignment. “I made some queries and decided not to attend”- he told media persons when asked why he skipped the event.

The question is if Vardarajan could make inquiries, why others could not and did not. Padgaonkar is not just another journalist but he is part of the UPA government’s peace process in Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandit organizations and people from Jammu have demanded his resignation and asking whether it was possible to expect objectivity from ‘partisan’ intellectuals like him.

Justice Sachar dealt with a major issue like the status of Muslims but with the revelation of his association with people like Fai, right wing hardliners questioning the credibility of the report cannot be ruled out.

While it would be unfair to attribute anti national motives to the participants, it is also hard to believe that all of these learned intellectuals were taken for a ride or were lured by free business class tickets and hospitality.

If it was the duty of these intellectuals to have looked before they leapt and made necessary inquiries before attending such conferences, the Indian Government and the Indian Embassy in Washington in particular on its part clearly failed in its duty to inform and educate them about the background and motive of the organizer. Either way, the outcome has not made us a prouder nation.