Rajeev Sharma

By : Rajeev Sharma

Call it a storm in a teacup. Call it much ado about nothing. Call it what you will but the much-hyped return of Geeta, a deaf-mute Indian woman in her mid twenties, from Pakistan to India on Oct. 26 is a classic case, which falls in the categories mentioned in the preceding sentences.

The Geeta episode is making waves for its possible impact on two counts: India-Pakistan relations and ongoing Bihar elections. Many spin doctors of Modi and his die-hard fans are projecting as though the episode will have a positive impact on Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Actually nothing of the sort will happen, as this is spin doctoring at its best — nothing more, nothing less. Let’s take up one by one the two issues, which are as different from one another as apples and oranges.

Print media of India and Pakistan gave acres of space while their electronic counterparts vied with their rivals in showing footage of Geeta and various related events choreographed by the Narendra Modi government — all packed in one day on Oct. 26. And there were many such events — Geeta being presented to the media by none other than Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The uninitiated may be surprised to know that one Mahato family from Bihar had been petitioning the Indian authorities, including the Ministry of External Affairs, for long claiming that Geeta was indeed their long lost daughter, but their pleas evoked no positive response.

Actually it was Salman Khan starrer Bollywood blockbuster “Bajrangi Bhaijaan,” which provided a deep focus on the Geeta story. Interestingly, the film story was Geeta’s story in reverse, though the filmmakers were not aware of the Geeta story. The film showed how an Indian (Bajrangi, played by Salman moved heaven and earth to ensure that a deaf-mute Pakistani girl child lost in India is restored to her Pakistani parents) goes to extreme lengths to reunite the lost Pakistani child with her family. The film proved to be a super hit and the biggest revenue grosser in the history of Indian cinema.

The Geeta episode put focus on the soft side of the frigid India-Pakistan bilateral relations. So much so that the premier announced Rs10 million grant to the Edhi Foundation, a Pakistani NGO which had taken care of Geeta for well over a decade.

India did not stop here and decided to send a Pakistani boy Mohammed Ramzan back to Pakistan as a “return gift” for Geeta. Ramzan, a native of Karachi, had strayed into India at a very young age, much like the Geeta case in reverse.

This emboldened Pakistan to demand return of all its 459 nationals who have been languishing in the Indian jails for a long time.

Sample this. “We have handed over Geeta to India and I hope that India will also release 459 Pakistani prisoners,” said Manzoor Memon, the media head of Pakistan High Commission in India. The Pakistani diplomat was clearly getting ambitious but in all probability he was aware that it was mere posturing.

Now let’s turn to the domestic fallout of the Geeta episode. The BJP left no stone unturned in trying to cash in on the newly generated India-Pakistan bonhomie by claiming credit for this humanitarian work.

Sushil Modi, BJP’s tallest leader in Bihar and a former deputy chief minister of the state, dangled a question to Bihar chief minister and Modi’s biggest political rival in Bihar. He tauntingly tweeted why Nitish Kunar was keeping silent on the Geeta episode and why he was not congratulating Modi for bringing Geeta back to India from Pakistan.

Sushil Modi also took a dig at Nitish Kumar for his support to Ishrat Jahan, the young woman from Bihar who was gunned down in Gujarat for being an alleged terrorist when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. This brings us back to the point made at the outset here: Whether the Geeta episode would change anything, be it Indo-Pak relations or the outcome of Bihar polls.

The fact is that it would do neither. While no one can take away the fact that the Geeta episode has indeed brought forth the soft and positive side of the India-Pakistan relations, this incident alone cannot be a game changer.

As for its outcome on Bihar polls, like also in Indo-Pak ties, it is a flash in the pan, which will have little or no consequence.

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