A determined crusader of the Kashmiris' right of self-determination, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, is no secret agent; for over three decades he has been out in the open on his campaign in plain sight of the world. Working from his Washington-based Kashmir Centre, he has been espousing the Kashmiris' cause by holding conferences, seminars and media events, and in-between he travels overseas in pursuance of that objective. He is now an American citizen but his heart beats with his fellow Kashmiris.
No surprise then his arrest the other day by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on charges that appear to be so hollow has provoked instant reaction by the Kashmiri leadership and the Kashmiri diaspora, the world over. Pakistan Foreign Office, too, conveyed its annoyance through a demarche to the American embassy - after an initial hesitation when Prime Minister Gilani refused to comment on Dr Fai's arrest and the Pakistan embassy in Washington opaquely remarked that he is 'not a Pakistani citizen and the government and embassy have no knowledge of the case'.
How come when the burden of the indictment is on Dr Fai's alleged links with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, our government should have acted so unconcerned? However, the FO demarche to a considerable extent compensates for the initial weakness by seeing Dr Fai's arrest as "a continuation of a slander campaign against Pakistan and an attempt to malign the Kashmir cause". It also rightly reminds the American government that upholding the fundamental rights of Kashmiris is the fundamental responsibility of the international community and all conscientious people who value human rights and values". Not that the United States is short of conscientious people and respect for human rights is in short supply, what intrigues the mind is the revival of McCarthyism in that country. As the Fai arrest episode was almost coincidental to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's India visit - there is a perception here that nothing is being spared by the US government to cultivate Indian friendship.
If the arrest of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai pleases India, why not do it, which seems to be the American policy of winning and more often losing friends. Otherwise, what is there be illegal in his work which enjoys international legitimacy in terms of the Kashmiris' right of self-determination upheld by a number of UN resolutions? The American law permits, even encourages, employment of lobbyists, who enjoy unrestricted access to lawmakers, and that was exactly the nature of Dr Fai's work in Washington. It's not only he who is engaged in this business, at any point of time, there may be scores of lobbyists tasked by the hiring governments and non-government bodies to influence American law-making process. Why then he should have been singled out and made a scapegoat in pursuance of State Department's hidden agenda? There is also the FBI charge that Dr Fai had failed to register his outfit as an agent under the law.
The question is why after a good three decades the FBI has realised that Dr Fai is on the wrong side of the law. None of his activities were secret and covert; he held open-house seminars, met the media men under the full glare of camera and called on the Congressmen under the high noon sun. How big is the four million dollars, allegedly passed on to him by the ISI, when spread over 32 years? That comes to 125,000 dollars a year to change the mind of the United States Congress on an issue as crucial as Kashmir, what a joke. And what to say of the allegation that the ISI didn't pay him but reimbursed payments to some one dozen front-men or their relatives who actually contributed to the Dr Fai's funds for lobbyism - too ridiculous to be contested. Isn't there a million strong Kashmiri diaspora scattered all over Europe and the United States to finance the Kashmir Centre run by a person of Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai's integrity and repute? In fact the tail that seems to be wagging the dog is not Dr Fai's alleged unlawful lobby work but the US agencies' drive to undermine the morale of the ISI which it finds to be too obstructive. Dr Fai is the Kashmiris' hero, any attempt to malign his credentials would certainly dent America's image as the ultimate bastion of "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence penned by Thomas Jafferson and adopted by Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.