IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack is ISI’s propaganda? Know how much truth was hidden and how many lies were told

New Delhi: Has Netflix’s new web series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’ been made as part of a conspiracy? The web series is an attempt to present the 1999 incident exactly as it was, except for the so-called ‘artistic freedom’. But in this, silence has been maintained on the role of the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which had planned the entire plane hijack, while the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been proved to be ‘evil’. This is the reason that when a conversation took place between the Central Government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) and Netflix on Tuesday, questions were raised on the content of the web series. The Secretary of the Ministry, Sanjay Jaju, asked Netflix India’s Content Vice President Monica Shergill that why the role of the real mastermind of the plane hijack, ISI, was not shown in the web series?

The government asked serious questions from the senior journalist too

English newspaper The Indian Express quoted sources as saying this. According to this, Jaju told Shergill that some aspects have been depicted correctly in the web series using real media footage, but other important facts are not even mentioned. According to sources, one episode told the story of the release of terrorists and its aftermath in which the ISI has been absolved of its role in the kidnapping. Senior journalist Vir Sanghvi, in an article written for the news website The Print, has even called this Netflix web series an expensive propaganda of the ISI. he/she also expressed displeasure over RAW being shown as a tyrant in the series.

What is your intention to serve lies upon lies?

Sanghvi has clearly stated in his/her article that there has been a Hindu-Muslim controversy over the web series, but in reality the matter is about presenting baseless things. he/she said that many such things have been shown in the web series which have nothing to do with it. At the same time, many facts have been hidden. he/she said that what happened inside the hijacked plane has been depicted correctly, but there has been a lot of fraud in showing what happened on the ground outside the plane. Senior journalist Vir Sanghvi clearly wrote, ‘This is a lie. The way baseless things were deliberately shown in defense of someone, this series seems to be an exercise to enhance the image of the ISI.’ he/she further says, ‘If you lie about an extremely important event in India’s recent history, then the new generation will believe this lie to be true and the truth will be suppressed.’

Told the Hindu code name, but hid the real one!

As far as giving Hindu code names to the terrorists is concerned, the makers of the series have been clever here too. Sanghvi says, ‘It is true that the kidnappers used Hindu nicknames but the web series does not tell us what their real names were.’ Look at the cleverness, when there was a controversy over ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’, Netflix clarified that the government itself had given the code names of the terrorists. The question is that the government had also told their real names, why were they hidden? The Indian government had told that the kidnappers were Suni Ahmed Qazi, Shahid, Mistri Zahra Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar Saeed and Ibrahim Athar. The web series hides that all the kidnappers were Pakistanis and a few days after the kidnapping, Indian intelligence agencies had identified everyone.

Complete ISI propaganda?

Instead, the kidnappers have been described as Afghans and even attempts have been made to link them to Al-Qaeda, while the entire plot was prepared by the ISI. But in the web series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’, Osama bin Laden has been shown as the conspirator instead of the ISI. Sanghvi writes, ‘This is absolutely false. The kidnapping was an ISI operation and part of Pakistan’s proxy war against India for decades.’

In the story, an Indian agent keeps a Pakistani diplomat under surveillance and finds out that he/she is just a façade, the real conspirator is an Afghan. Sanghvi says that no such facts have come to light till date. The way it has been told in the story that RAW had already received information about the hijacking conspiracy and a RAW agent even tried to stop it, is nothing but a blatant lie. After this, the way RAW has been shown torturing Nepali citizens in order to gather information about the conspiracy, the intention of the web series makers becomes clear.

Sanghvi says, ‘All this is fictional. This cannot be called ‘creative liberty’.’ All these lies have not been presented without reason. Sanghvi says, ‘These fictional things are a part of the message of the series. That is, yes, the terrorists may be bad people, but the other side (ie, the Indian government) is no better either. It is incompetent, stupid and tyrannical. This type of view is absolutely strange in a web series made for the Indian audience, which has no concrete evidence.’

Such insult to the Foreign Minister!

In the web series, India’s Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister have been insulted in such a way that the agenda becomes clear. The Foreign Minister (Jaswant Singh) is shown sitting in his/her own office under a big signboard, as if he/she is not the Foreign Minister but a receptionist in the passport office. On receiving the news of the kidnapping, Jaswant Singh’s character makes big plans from this office. Sanghvi says, ‘This is another fraud because till the last moment in this conspiracy, Jaswant Singh had only tried to get the world to help us, which did not happen. he/she was not a major part of the strategy of how to deal with the terrorists.’

By the end of the story, the whole propaganda becomes even more clear. Through the web series, the makers’ entire effort is to defend the ISI. For this, it is okay even if they have to lie and call the Afghans and Al-Qaeda the conspirators. It is shown in the series that when the kidnappers succeeded in their aim, they celebrated with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and since the ISI had nothing to do with this, it was missing from the party.

What is Anubhav Sinha’s intention?

Keep in mind that the director of this Netflix propaganda web series is Anubhav Sinha. This series is based on the hijacking of the Kathmandu-Delhi flight of Indian Airlines. It is said to be inspired by the statements of the pilot of the plane, Captain Devi Sharan, and the book ‘Flight Into Fear’ written by Srinjoy Chaudhary on the incident. The Indian Airlines flight was hijacked by the terrorists of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen on 24 December 1999. It was first landed in Amritsar and then taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan. There were 179 passengers in the plane, out of which only one died. After a week of negotiations, the Indian government released three terrorists, only then the lives of the passengers were saved.

The Indian government had said in a statement, ‘The kidnapping incident has once again exposed the involvement of Pakistan and the organizations protected and supported by it in terrorist acts against India… The investigation made it clear that the kidnapping was masterminded by Pakistan’s ISI with the help of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.’ The Indian government’s disclosure of the code names of the terrorists was made the basis, all the rest were lies.