Top secret: Who leaked the Balakot air strike information?
Arnab Goswami's WhatsAppchats with Partho Dasgupta, CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)- a rating agency revealed much information that could be termed as top secretin the context of Balakot air strike.
Without questioning theauthenticity of the chats, Goswami on Tuesday concluded that he had shared theinformation that was in public domain. The Telegraph newspaper in its storyasked if the information related to the Balakot airstrike was found in theHuman Rights activist or with an anti-CAA protester just three days after theBalakot Bombing, it could have invited a witch hunt or verbal lynching of thatperson.
In the chats, Goswami hadwritten that "People will be elated." He had written, "Thegovernment is confident of striking in a way that people will be elated.”Goswami in a press release tried to defend by saying that the information wasin public domain. In a statement he said, "Thousands of journalistsreported, wrote about it."
He further wrote in thepress release, "when a journalist is attacked for WhatsApp chat on apublically available information....." However, he himself used WhatsAppchat in several of his shows against the alleged victims.
The Telegraph in its reportmentioned that cross border missions always involve high risk. Missionaccomplishment status is not ascertained beforehand as far as such missions areconcerned.
The chat attributed toGoswami dates back to February 23, 2019 while the Balakot air strike operationwas done three days later on February 26, 2019. The newspaper asked, "Doesit mean that the government had only a modest tactical objective from the raid,which it was sure of accomplishing? It is pertinent to recall that one Unionminister later said the purpose was not to cause human casualty."
The prominent question thatarises out of the leaked chats is how did Goswami know about the airstrike? Thegovernment at the center had said that the strike had killed "very largenumber of terrorists." The unnamed Indian sources put the toll at morethan 300.However, Pakistan denied it by saying only the trees were uprooted.
The Telegraph further asksif the information was available on messaging service, whether it helpedPakistan government to take terrorists to safe havens. “There are thousands ofarticles from that time suggesting a hard and tough response from the Indianforces. The government stated the same in interviews to our network andelsewhere, which were broadcast across the world,” Goswami said in the statementreleased by him.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congressleader said, “If Mr Arnab Goswami knows, if it is on his WhatsApp, I assume thePakistanis also know it. It is not a very big jump. It is a criminal act and thatinvestigation should begin.” The Congress leader also termed it a top secretinformation that was available with only five people in the government. It endsonly on one question, who gave Arnab this top secret information?