External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday addressed the Parliament about the meeting that former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav had with his wife and mother in Pakistan.
The meeting was not consular access, as India had requested, but was done by Pakistan on “humanitarian grounds”, as Swaraj said in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Swaraj called the meeting a “propaganda tool” by Pakistan.
A meeting of a mother with her son and a wife with her husband was turned into a propaganda tool by Pakistan.
The women were asked to remove their bangles, mangalsutra and bindis as Pakistan cited “security reasons”.
Jadhav ji’s mother, who only wears a sari, was forced to wear salwar kurta. Not just his wife, but the bindi and mangalsutra of his mother were also removed. Both the married women were made to look like widows. I spoke to her and she told me that as soon as she reached, Kulbhushan asked her, ‘Baba kaise hain? (how is father?)’, because he thought a mishap has taken place when he wasn’t around.Sushma Swaraj
Swaraj said that due procedure had not been followed and the meeting began without the Deputy High Commissioner being present. Had he seen that the women were being asked to change their garments, he would have “registered a protest there and then,” Swaraj stated.
Jadhav’s wife’s shoes were kept by the Pakistani side and were not returned to her, even after the meeting had ended.
Even after her repeated attempts, the shoes of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wife were not returned to her. Pakistan says that there was a camera or a recorder in the shoes. Nothing can be more absurd than this, as she traveled in two flights with those shoes on. It is an absurdity beyond measure.
Swaraj said that the meeting cannot be called a humanitarian gesture when an atmosphere of fear was perpetuated for everyone.
It was nothing like a humanitarian gesture. Human rights of the family members were violated again and again and an environment of fear was created for them.
After their meeting was concluded, videos also showed Pakistani journalists heckling the women, calling Jadhav a “killer of thousands of Pakistanis”. It had been agreed upon by both India and Pakistan that media will not be present when the meeting takes place.
The family was also not allowed to speak with Jadhav in their native Marathi, but when his mother continued to speak in it, the two Pakistani officials present switched off her intercom.
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