By Allabaksh New Delhi (Syndicate Features): It is hardly surprising that a book written on the slain Pakistani leader, Benazir Bhutto, by an Indian author has created controversy in Pakistan. But what is surprising is the rash of apologies that has followed in India following protests by some members of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party days after the release of the book, ‘Goodbye Shahzadi’.
The Lauh Purush of the Bharatiya Janata Party, L.K. Advani was perhaps still wiping his tears that he had shed at a public function the other day when he heard about the protestations in Pakistan and promptly offered his apologies to the Bhutto family and her party. After all he is said to share a ‘special’ bond with her - nothing more than the accident of both of them belonging to the province of Sindh. But his apology came with an implausible explanation that he was not aware of the contents of Shyam Bhatia’s biography of the ‘Shahzadi’ (princess), when he had agreed to release it in India.
Publisher, Roli Book’s Pramod Kapoor, pointed out that some sections of the book had been widely publicised before it was released, also excerpts from the book had been published in some newspapers in the US and elsewhere, which had evoked adverse comments. The delayed cry against the book may well be the reaction against US comments.
The ‘controversial’ parts of the book received wide notice after the author was interviewed ahead of the book release. Unless he had been in deep slumber days prior to the function where he released the book Advani (said to be fond of reading books, though mostly fiction) could not have been totally oblivious of the so-called controversial parts of the book. Advani will have to be an incredible political ignoramus if he was not aware of the kind of controversies that late Bhutto had courted during her two stints as prime minister of Pakistan. Stories of her personal lifestyle have always abounded.
The PPP refutes the claim that Begum Bhutto acted as the courier of special CDs containing the secrets of uranium enrichment from Pakistan to North Korea and returning with the designs of the Korean Nodong missile, which helped Pakistan catch up with India in the missile race. It is this bit that really bugs the PPP leaders who are now threatening to sue the author and demand huge damages from the London-based Bhatia, whose father Prem Bhatia was a well-known and widely respected journalist in India.
Only the Pakistanis believe in the fiction that their missile programme is entirely indigenous. As for the clandestine export of Pakistan’s nuclear know-how, borrowed and stolen (from the West), according to A. Q. Khan, ‘father’ of the Pakistani bomb, the less said the better. There is not even an iota of doubt that Pakistan had exported its uranium enrichment technology to regimes that the US identifies as ‘rogue states’.
Shyam Bhatia’s book did not disclose something that was not known. What it did reveal was the exact role of Begum Bhutto no less in Pakistan’s nuclear trade with North Korea—her volunteering to carry CDs of uranium enrichment details in her coat for delivery in North Korea during an official visit as prime minister. Bhutto had given him this information during an off-the-record conversation when she had actually dwelt at some length on the topic, complete with the disclosure that she had to search for a coat with ‘very deep pockets’ to help her carry the CDs. Bhatia kept this information to himself long enough.
Later when she learnt about Bhatia’s intention to write a book on her—publicised as her ‘biography’-- she realised that public knowledge of her role as a double courier of nuclear contraband could be very damaging. She sought Bhatia for an on-record interview where she said that Nodong was a straight cash deal between Pakistan and North Korea. As a corollary to this episode interesting questions arises. Did A. Q. Khan face competition from the then prime minister of the land in illegal transfer of nuclear know-how from Pakistan? Isn’t he right when he says that he has been made a ‘scapegoat’ in the story of Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear trade?
Despite protests from Pakistan the possibility of Bhutto as a courier of nuclear and missile secrets cannot be ruled out, given her flamboyant style and her inherited (from father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) passion to bring Pakistan on par with India with more than a matching inventory of nuclear weapons and nuclear-capable missiles. But assuming that the book’s claim that Bhutto actually carried the CDs with details of uranium enrichment in her coat with deep pockets is not true the fact of North Korean help to Pakistan cannot be denied. Bhutto herself had publicly acknowledged that North Korea helped Pakistan’s missile programme.
In the quirky postscript on ‘Goodbye Shahzadi’ the gratuitous ‘apology’ and comments made by the Indian publisher Pramod Kapoor are no less strange. He told a newspaper that he had to trust the author who alone could answer the questions being raised about the book. Yet he castigates the author for including some details about Bhutto’s personal life in the book. Worse, he now agrees to remove certain portions from the book in the next edition. Kapoor is reported to have said that Goodbye Shahzadi is a ‘political’ book and ‘personal’ details should not have formed part of it. Really?
If a publisher feels strongly about certain parts of the book he would not include them when he agrees to publish the book even if it means the author walking out of the contract. But most publishers respect the author’s freedom to write even if it has the potential to become controversial. Many would think that publishers - and authors - thrive on controversy. It assures good sales. But it will be unfair to accuse the author or even the publisher of deliberately banking on controversy to sell this book. As a straightforward journalist, Bhatia chose his time to write about a subject he knew well from his college days.
In this respect those Pakistanis who are threatening Bhatia would do well to read some titbits that another Indian friend—also a journalist—wrote about ‘Pinky’ (Benazir Bhutto) in his column.. It was largely a flattering piece but with bits that would offend PPP leaders. Perhaps, the PPP worthy who plans to travel to London to file a suit against Shyam Bhatia would like to take a similar action against the columnist and hope to collect a larger pot of ‘damages’. (Syndicate Features)
