PakAlumni Worldwide: The Global Social Network

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Pahalgam Attack: Why is the Indian Media Not Asking Hard Questions?

A recent terrorist attack on April 22 in Kashmir has killed 26 Indian tourists. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu Nationalist government took no time to blame Pakistan for the attack and vowed to "punish" the neighbor for it. Indian media, also derisively known as "Godi media", immediately went into overdrive to demand action against Pakistan. New Delhi followed up with suspending the Indus Basin Water treaty from the 1960s which guarantees 80% of the water from the three western rivers (Chenab, Jhelum and Indus rivers) to Pakistan, while India gets the exclusive use of the water from three eastern rivers (Beas, Ravi and Sutlej rivers). India also ordered Pakistani visitors to leave the country and reduced Pakistani diplomatic staff posted in India. Pakistan responded by suspending Simla Agreement and banning overflights of Indian civilian and military aircraft through its airspace. Pakistan warned India that any attempt to block its share of water from the three western rivers will be an "act of war", adding that it was prepared to respond, “with full force across the complete spectrum of national power”. Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country, as is India. Pakistan's nuclear doctrine calls for the use of nuclear weapons if its national existence is threatened by any country.

Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati

The Indian mainstream media has amplified the Modi government's propaganda and abandoned its role of asking the hard questions to get at the truth. Among the few who have raised serious doubts about Delhi's narrative is a Hindu religious leader named Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati. In a viral video, the holy man has asked the following questions:

1. Shouldn't our "chowkidar" (Modi has called himself chowkidar in the past) be held accountable for any attacks on our home?

2. How did the attackers manage to come in, carry out the attack without any resistance and safely escape?

3. How did you so quickly determine that the attackers came from Pakistan? And if you are so good at reaching this conclusion so quickly, why were you unable to stop the attack in the first place.

4. Can India really cut off water flow instantly to Pakistan to "punish" it? Experts say it will take at least 20 years if India allocated unlimited funds to make it happen as fast as possible. It will require building dams, water reservoirs and canals to divert the water from Pakistan.

Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi sees the hand of "Indian deep state" at work in Pahalgam, carried out while the US Vice President JD Vance in India. Sethi recalls what former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote in her memoirs titled "Mighty Almighty" about the killing of 35 Sikh villagers in Kashmir that India blamed on Pakistan during US President Bill Clinton's India visit in March, 2000. She said Clinton suspected the hand of Hindu extremists in the Chittisinghpura incident. She quoted him saying that if he hadn’t made the trip, the victims would have still been alive.

Among the Indian journalists, only Bharat Bhushan has raised some questions about his country's government narrative. He thinks India violated the back-channel agreement between Modi's NSA Ajit Doval and Pakistan's then NSA Moeed Yusuf reached after 2019 to spare the civilians on both sides in any proxy attacks. Bhushan points out a warning from Lt General Ahmad Sharif that “the (Jaafar Express) train attack (in Balochistan) has changed the rule of the game”.

Bhushan's op ed mentions Modi's muscular policy toward people he sees as "terrorists". Canada, Pakistan and the United States have all accused the Indian government of a campaign of international assassinations. He writes: "Another development has been the targeted killings of terrorists and militants — both Kashmir and Sikhs, that Pakistan alleges have been initiated by Indian intelligence agencies after the Pulwama terrorist strike in 2019 when 40 paramilitary personnel were killed. India was allegedly inspired to undertake extra-judicial killings on foreign soil, from the example of Russia’s KGB, Israel’s Mossad, and the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia".

Bhushan concludes his Op Ed in Deccan Herald as follows: "How will India react now to what it believes to be Pakistan-sponsored terrorism? The bravado about punishing every terrorist act with greater-than-expected force is not going to be easy to put in action. Geopolitical circumstances have changed since 2019. Public sentiment cannot be the sole basis of military strikes. Thankfully, no crucial election is in the offing where assuaging public emotions becomes an issue. India will also have to provide proof to the world that Pakistan was indeed involved. This would require the arrest and questioning of the terrorists involved. That may take time. Only the tacit approval of the US can ensure that a strike against Pakistan does not spin out of control".

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

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Comment by Riaz Haq yesterday: Why is China speeding up work on Pakistan dam after India held Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance?

https://youtu.be/PQeWyYeQOdI

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Could China’s Tibet mega dam help boost its sway with South Asian neighbours? | South China Morning Post

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3319326/could-chi...

China’s latest mega dam on the Tibetan Plateau could help draw neighbouring countries closer into its economic orbit by supplying electricity and boosting growth, analysts have argued.According to some estimates, the dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo will be the world’s biggest, producing up to 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, three times the output of the Three Gorges Dam.State news agency Xinhua said over the weekend that its output would “primarily deliver electricity for external consumption” but would also meet local demand in Tibet.But the project has drawn concerns about the impact on water supply and ecological risks downstream in India and Bangladesh, where the river is known as the Brahmaputra, although Beijing has said it was not seeking to benefit at the “expense of its neighbours”.
India is also worried about Beijing’s efforts to strengthen its influence in South Asia, and Chinese observers said the project could help increase its sway over countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, which have long struggled with power shortages.The project “will undoubtedly become a major power hub for surrounding countries and related neighbouring regions”, according to Zhu Feng, dean of the school of international studies at Nanjing University.

“It will have significant strategic value in boosting electricity supply and industrial growth in the surrounding regions,” he said.

It would also play an important role in driving economic cooperation with its neighbours, something Beijing has made a priority in light of its rivalry with the US.

Lin Minwang, deputy director of Fudan University’s Centre for South Asian Studies, said that in the long run, the hydropower project could help draw Southeast and South Asian countries more closely into China’s economic orbit through electricity exports.He said India might also benefit from the power generated from the dam, but border tensions would complicate the issue.
“The key issue is political relations,” said Lin. “Northeast India is a highly sensitive area for New Delhi, and if electricity is to be sent to Bangladesh, it would require a transit route.”India has already been investing heavily in hydropower projects in Nepal and Bhutan to secure its own supplies.“Whether those countries will choose China or India [for future power imports] is another much bigger question,” Lin added.
The dam will be built close to the border with India and flows through Arunachal Pradesh, an Indian-controlled state that China claims as part of southern Tibet. Beijing has previously objected to Indian infrastructure projects in the state.Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, said the project was first of all designed to meet China’s own power needs, and “whether demand is sufficient in the present domestic economic downturn and whether it is environmentally less risky are other matters”.China has tried to address concerns about the environmental risk posed by the project and its impact on water supplies downstream, and said it would continue to strengthen cooperation with neighbouring countries.
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday that the project “aims to accelerate the development of clean energy” and “comprehensive ecological and environmental protection measures” would be adopted.“It will, as a by-product, aggravate the tensions with India and attract some Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries to China’s power diplomacy. So it has double effects both internal and external,” Shi said.

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