Where Borders Bleed review: Ex-Indian envoy takes on BBC Radio's Andrew Whitehead on false statements

Former Indian diplomat, and now television commentator and writer Rajiv Dogra has taken exception to a review done by BBC Radio's Andrew Whitehead of his book titled "Where Borders Bleed", which he has done for Biblio and has appeared on the internet.

In a letter to Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Editor of the editor of Biblio, India's leading literary and cultural journal, Dogra, who was India's Consul General in Karachi, has accused Whitehead of falsely ascribing and attributing several statements to him (Dogra), and indirectly suggested that Whitehead may have some prejudice and bias, which he would not like to comment on.

In a statement forwarded to Biblio, Dogra said, "I have seen on the internet a review by Mr.Andrew Whitehead for Biblio of my book "Where Borders Bleed".

"I would not like to comment on his prejudice or bias, because that judgment should best be left to the readers of the book. However in the interests of accuracy, I feel compelled to point out that Mr. Whitehead has falsely ascribed many statements/words to me.

For instance he writes,"...His daughter showed grit in pursuing and winning the 1971 war, then threw it all away by her naive and ill-considered conduct at the Simla summit the following year. And since then, according to Dogra, it's been downhill all the way. Vajpayee made a fool of himself by taking the bus to Lahore when Pakistan's incursion towards Kargil was already underway. The Operation Parakram army mobilisation after the attack on the Indian Parliament was 'bizarre' as well as ineffective. As for Manmohan Singh, India's response to the 26/11 attack on Mumbai is described as 'grotesque'."

I have never used the words "naive and ill-considered conduct" for Mrs. Gandhi. Nor have I said anywhere in the book that "...it's been downhill all the way."

I find it shocking that Mr. Whitehead should then attribute to me the following, "Vajpayee made a fool of himself...." He then goes on to claim falsely that I have described "India's response to the 26/11 attack on Mumbai as 'grotesque'."

Mr. Whitehead also writes, 'Whatever can be said of this engagingly dyspeptic account of India-Pakistan relations, it's certainly not even-handed.'

Dogra counters by saying, "Now if I am dyspeptic, Mr. Whitehead, how can I be even-handed?"

He further goes on to state that, "There are many other aspects of this review that can be commented upon for their inaccuracy, however let me cite just one more example.

Mr. Whitehead writes, "It's rulers have been almost without exception sly, devious and immoral: Ayub Khan was - we're told - linked in the press to Christine Keeler, the young femme fatale in the Profumo affair, Britain's foremost sixties political scandal; Yahya Khan 'was known to be an alcoholic and a womanizer';"

"Once again Mr. Whitehead chooses to sacrifice accuracy. I have not used the terms 'sly, devious and immoral' to describe the rulers of Pakistan. These are Mr. Whitehead's words. Wherever I have described a leader I have taken care to give in each case the source of the quote either in the text itself or in the footnotes below."

He said that in the interests of fairness and accuracy, Mr. Whitehead should have mentioned that all these quotes/assessments were made either by the British High Commissioner of the time in Pakistan or by the President of US/ Prime Minister of UK.

He said that he had described in some detail in the book the role played by England before and after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, but Mr. Whitehead had chosen not to comment on this and whether this was a deliberate omission on his part.