RAW deal

Not so hidden hand

Without giving into unnecessary hysteria – as India usually does in such matters – it is important to lay some facts straight about the RAW officer allegedly arrested in Balochistan a few days ago. Needless to say if a colonel-level ISI officer had been picked up inside India – stoking sectarian and separatist tendencies – Delhi would have gone through the roof. Since Pakistan’s RAW charge is backed by the foreign office as well as the southern command – it seems there is some sort of compelling evidence – India’s measured denial will only complicate matters in the days to come.

Owing the alleged spy, but only as far as a limited navy career (from which he is said to have taken premature retirement), but ruling out the intelligence connection does reek of the text book agency rebuttal. But if it turns out that Pakistan’s intel is indeed correct, India’s own machinations will leave it with more egg on the face. It will make Islamabad’s case at the UN much stronger also – where its dossier of Indian intelligence involvement in Pakistan was not received too warmly last summer. Charges that the spy was caught aiding secessionists in Balochistan and sabotaging CPEC are as serious as they get and, if true, India will have some serious explaining to do.

The timing, of course, is also sensitive. Not too long ago changes of negotiations getting back on track seemed more or less non-existent. Yet Modi surprised everybody by taking a U-turn after going out of his way to create distance between India and Pakistan. Now, hopes that the two PMs would meet on the sidelines of the nuclear summit in Washington are also fading; raising questions about ‘two steps back’ one more time. The Indian response, once again, will decide to a large extent how things develop from here.