Bharat Bhushan: 'Arnabgate' undermines the Modi govt's national security narrative
NB: 'The government cannot feign ignorance of the allegations as Goswami’s chats celebrate the Pulwama terrorist strike, about which he says, “with this attack we have won like crazy”. This could lead to conspiracy theories about the Pulwama terrorist strike which resulted in the death of 40 security personnel...' Only one question needs to be asked of the Sangh Parivar - what would you and your IT Cell and numerous trolls and spokespersons have said if the boot were on the other foot? What if a "sickular libtard" news anchor had done what your favourite mud-slinger has done? What shameless hypocrisy! But what is shame to the shameless. DS
In April 2009, the chief of counter-terrorism at the UK’s Metropolitan Police
was held to have compromised an anti-terrorist operation because he was
photographed alighting from his car with a document titled ‘Briefing Note:
Operation Pathways’. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick was carrying it to a
security briefing at the British prime minister’s residence, 10, Downing
Street. Operation Pathways had to be brought forward and the careless police
officer had to resign for this inadvertent disclosure.
Much worse has happened in India. Prima facie evidence
suggests that operational intelligence about an impending military strike
against Pakistan might have been shared with a journalist in advance by
the Narendra Modi government or by people associated with
it. Despite the gravity of the issue, there is radio silence from the
government. No heads have rolled and no inquiry has been ordered.
A television news anchor and self-styled ultra-nationalist
propagandist, Arnab Goswami, had prior knowledge of the impending military strike
against Pakistan, and he shared it in a WhatsApp chat. He claimed “something
big will happen” against Pakistan and that it would be “bigger than a normal
strike”. He also said, “on Pakistan the government is confident of striking in
a way that people will be elated”, and significantly added “exact words used”,
clearly referring to a reliable source. Goswami has not denied the veracity of
the WhatsApp chats filed by the Maharashtra police in court.
If Goswami leaked the operational intelligence on February 23, 2019, three days before India’s airstrike in Pakistan, for how long had he known about it? Whose “exact words” was he using? Could he have shared the information with others inimical to India’s interests? These questions should have been a matter of high-level investigation in any mature democracy by now. The longer the government keeps quiet the more its national security narrative is likely to be undermined. The Balakot airstrikes against Pakistan had taken place mere weeks before the last general election. The campaign of the Modi government drew heavily on the air strike in seeking a re-election mandate on the grounds of protecting national interest and upholding national security.
Those privy to operational military intelligence are signatories to the Oath of Secrecy and are bound by the Official Secrets Act. The number of those in the government who had prior knowledge of the airstrike on Pakistan is not large – perhaps the members of the Cabinet Committee on Security, the President as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the Chief of Air Staff and the theatre commander of the Air Force, the Chief of the Army Staff, the National Security Advisor and one or two senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Goswami’s source can be prosecuted under Section 5 of the
Official Secrets Act for communicating and disclosing secret information and
Goswami for receiving such information and purveying it further. If it is an
office bearer of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who informed Goswami
about the impending attack based on his illegal knowledge of it, then he too
can be prosecuted.
A quick investigation should have identified the culprit by
now. However, no such investigation has been ordered and the leak itself has
not been admitted by the government. Nor has the government reacted to Pakistan
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who in the wake of media reports about Goswami’s
chats, described India as a “rogue state” that had attacked Pakistan “to win an
election in utter disregard for the consequences of destabilising the entire
region”.
The government cannot feign ignorance of the allegations as Goswami’s chats celebrate the Pulwama terrorist strike, about which he says, “with this attack we have won like crazy”. This could lead to conspiracy theories about the Pulwama terrorist strike which resulted in the death of 40 security personnel. It will be difficult for the government to ride out the political turbulence the issue will lead to in Parliament. Underlining the seriousness of the issue, the Congress party fielded former Defence Minister A K Anthony to take on the government on the leak. It has also demanded a “time-bound” investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the role of the persons involved in this breach of national security.
The reasons for the government’s inaction on the subject can
only be a matter of speculation. Arnab Goswami’s WhatsApp chats, which suggest
that national security was potentially compromised by someone in the government
or someone associated with it, have come from the mobile phone of the top
executive of Broadcast Audience Research Council. They are part of the court
records in a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Maharashtra Police in a
case of fixing Television Rating Points (TRP) data to manipulate advertisers.
However, the chat records from Goswami’s personal mobile phone seized by the
police are not yet in the public domain. Potentially they could provide
specific evidence against those who may have passed on sensitive information to
him.
The supplementary chargesheet in the TRP case is clearly an
afterthought by the Uddhav Thackeray government and it must have had good
advice to make it part of the court proceedings. There is no limitation on
proceedings in a criminal case and therefore the charges filed against Goswami
can stay alive in the legal process indefinitely. This means that the
prosecution of Goswami, even if it is delayed during the tenure of the Modi
government, can be revived any moment in his lifetime, by a future government.
Meanwhile, the issue may yet become a bargaining chip between the Shiv Sena-led alliance government in Maharashtra and the BJP government at the Centre. The political play, if any, is likely to continue side by side with the legal proceedings. Any political compromise can however only be over the details of information from Goswami’s mobile phone chats and messages which are not yet in the public domain. Normally one would expect at least one resignation from the government and the end of Goswami’s journalistic career. That neither of these has happened points to the deep rot in India’s democracy.
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