Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam Attack: Presumption vs. Proof
- Karan Thapar’s Interview: Ignoring the Most Crucial Question
- Where is the Evidence Against Pakistan?
- The ‘Queen of Hearts’ Justice: Punishment First, Inquiry Later
- Conjectures vs. Investigation: A Call for Rational Discourse
Reflections from Past Incidents: Learning from 26/11 Is Not Enough
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| Karan Thapar's Interview: Ignoring the Most Crucial Question |
Justice Markandey Katju critiques the superficial assumptions made in Karan Thapar’s interview with ex-NSA Shivshankar Menon on Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam attack. Where is the evidence against Pakistan? Is our educated elite failing the test of logic and inquiry?
The inanity of our 'educated' people
By Justice Markandey Katju
The well-known journalist Karan Thapar recently interviewed former diplomat Shivshankar Menon about Operation Sindoor.
Op Sindoor imposed costs on Pak but didn't deter terror, we have to manage problem now—Ex NSA Menon.
This interview reveals the inanity and superficiality of our so-called 'educated' class, to whom these two gentlemen belong.
The whole interview presupposes that Pakistan was behind the Pahalgam attack on 22nd April, 2025, in which 26 Hindu tourists were selectively killed.
Not once did Karan Thapar ask what is the evidence or proof that Pakistan was behind it, and not once does Shivshankar Menon go into this crucial question. Like the TV media, which started blaming Pakistan within a short time after the incident, though there had been no investigation, the whole interview proceeds on the footing, and taking it for granted, that Pakistan was the culprit.
The terrorists who committed this heinous and dastardly crime disappeared into the nearby jungles soon after the incident. Who were they, Indians or Pakistanis, who supplied them with the weapons they used, was there a mastermind behind them, etc, is all unknown, and will perhaps never be known, as I have explained in the article below :
I have given my own conjecture below :
The Indian government and the Indian media threw the entire blame for the incident on Pakistan, and the former launched Operation Sindoor.
In some interviews, I said that this was behaving like the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carrol's 'Alice in Wonderland', who would say '' Off with his head '' whenever anyone was brought before her. When someone said that the person should be given a hearing and a trial held, before cutting off his head, she replied '' Off with his head first, trial afterwards.
It is true that in the past, Pakistan-based terror groups had been behind some terrorist attacks in India, e.g. the Mumbai attacks on 26.11. 2008, in which one Pakistani Ajmal Qasab, was arrested. But the specific question is about the Pahalgam attack. What is the proof that Pakistan was behind it, justifying Operation Sindoor? Just because in the past Pakistanis were behind terrorist attacks in India does not necessarily prove that they were also behind the Pahalgam attack on 22.4.2025.
I raised this question in this panel discussion ( see from 23 minutes onwards in the video link ) :
But Karan Thapar and Shivshankar Menon peferred to gloss over it, behaving like the Queen of Hearts.
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
