ISLAMA BATH (AP) – The Pakistani prime minister on Monday reacted angrily to media reports about a text exchange between an Indian TV anchor and a former chief executive in the media industry indicating that an Indian air strike in 2019 in Pakistan was designed to kill the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chances of a new election.
Imran Khan responded on Twitter to the Indian media reports about an exchange between WhatsApp and the popular Indian TV anchor Arnab Goswami with Partho Dasgupta, the former head of a TV rating company.
The alleged text exchange three days before the air strike indicates that Goswami had prior knowledge of the attack and that it was designed to garner support for Modi in his re-election offer in the pending parliamentary election.
Goswami, a hotspot anchor who is co-owner and editor-in-chief of Indian Republic TV, is known for supporting Modi and his nationalist policies.
According to the WhatsApp transcript, Goswami Dasgupta sent an SMS three days before the air strike on February 26, 2019, saying: “something big will happen” and “Over Pakistan, the government is confident that they will strike in a way that makes people happy will be.”
Dasgupta told Goswami the attack on Pakistan would give Modi a ‘majority’ in the upcoming general election. Months later, in May 2019, Modi achieved a major victory, driving his Hindu nationalist party to back-to-back majorities in parliament.
Transcripts of the alleged text exchange seen by The Associated Press were submitted by Mumbai police as part of a supplementary charge sheet in another case regarding manipulation of TV ratings.
Neither Dasgupta nor Goswami were available for comment Monday. But Goswami’s Republic TV has issued a statement alleging that the Pakistani government conspired against his station.
The airstrike on Pakistan in February 2019 follows a suicide bombing in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir that month in which more than 40 Indian soldiers were killed. India blames Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has claimed responsibility.
Although Pakistan detained the leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Modi government launched a nightly air strike on the Pakistani city of Balakot, saying it had hit a militant camp. Pakistan said Indian warplanes dropped bombs in a wooded area, causing no casualties.
Pakistan responded by shooting down an Indian warplane in Kashmir and capturing its pilot, who was later released to ease tensions between neighboring countries.
Khan claims in a speech at the UN in 2019 that Modi used the air strike “for domestic election gain.”
In a series of tweets on Monday, Khan urged the world community to “stop India from its reckless, militaristic agenda before the government’s Mud Management pushes our region into a conflict it cannot control.”
“The latest revelations from (a) communication of an Indian journalist, known for his insanity, reveal the unholy connection between the government and the Indian media that led to a dangerous military adventure to win an election, without the effects of destabilizing the entire region, ‘he said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have regularly accused each other of unresolved attacks along the tense Kashmir border in violation of a 2003 ceasefire agreement. Kashmir is divided between nuclear weapons rivals, and both claim it in its entirety. They have waged two wars across the region since their independence from the British colonial government in 1947.
The controversy over the text exchange also drew criticism from India’s opposition, who demanded Modi’s answers.
The opposition Congress party said the text exchange between the two men had raised serious questions about India’s national security. “(Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party) betrayed our country by giving national security information to a so-called journalist,” the party tweeted on Monday.
Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from the Congress party, said on Sunday that the ‘leak of military secrets to a TV channel for commercial purposes’ required a ‘serious investigation’ by the Modi government. “We all expect it will not be, given the evidence of his complicity in the betrayal,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter.
___
Saaliq reports from New Delhi.