For a country not used to overt shows of diplomatic muscle over contentious issues with Pakistan, there has understandably been considerable triumphalism over ICJ’s verdict on Thursday. By all means, Thursday’s judgment at the Peace Palace in The Hague was a spectacle. On a neutral venue, before live TV, judges of the International Court of Justice publicly chided Pakistan, threw out its arguments and upheld India’s appeal for provisional measures. We also got to witness Pakistan’s legal representatives beating a hasty retreat while avoiding questions from media. What’s not to like?
Don’t let joyless critics and stiff-lipped legal eagles persuade you that this was an insignificant victory. It was not. Faced with a belligerent neighbour out to make an example of an Indian national, whom it claimed to have arrested under mysterious circumstances and hoped to flaunt as “proof of India’s perfidies” and eventually send him to the gallows, India needed to act fast.
As this writer has contended, the Narendra Modi government took no small amount of risk in shaking off hesitations of history and dragging Pakistan to United Nation’s highest court.
India argued with strength and conviction and was more than vindicated by the verdict. The court honoured our concerns, acknowledged urgency in the case, found fault with Pakistan for denying India consular access and directed it to stay Jadhav’s execution until the ICJ reaches a final judgment. All of Pakistan’s arguments were unambiguously and unanimously rejected. Finally, the court reminded a famously recalcitrant nation that the order on it was “binding”. By all accounts, this was an utterly comprehensive victory.
To quote Sarabjit Singh’s Pakistani lawyer Awais Sheikh, who had to seek asylum in Sweden for representing the Indian national who was tortured and killed in custody by Pakistan, India can legitimately claim victory.
