Sushma Swaraj says Jadhav asked about 'Baba' as Pakistan made his mother, wife look like 'widows'

Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wife and mother were made to look like ‘widows’ as they were forced to remove their mangalsutra, bindi and bangles when they met him in Islamabad, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said while making a statement in Parliament on the way the family was treated by Pakistan.

"Avanti Jadhav choked up as she told me the first question her son asked was - how is Baba (father)? Because looking at me like this, he feared something bad had happened," Sushma said in a moving and hard-hitting statement in the Rajya Sabha.

The emotional reunion of a "mother with her son and a wife with her husband" after 22 months was used by Pakistan as a propaganda tool, she said.

"There was violation after violation of human rights. There was no humanity in the gesture. Pakistan should be condemned in the strongest words for this behaviour," said Sushma.

The Pakistanis forced Jadhav’s mother and wife Chetankul to change clothes in the name of security, she added. "His mother, who wears only saris, was forced to wear a salwar kameez," Swaraj said as cries of "shame" echoed across the house.

"His mother told me she told the Pakistani officials she had never removed the mangalsutra, the symbol of her marriage...but they said nothing doing. This is the height of be-adabi (misbehavior)."

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Swaraj said it was "absurdity beyond measure" when Chetankul Jadhav’s shoes were taken and not returned.

“Her shoes were taken, and she was given a chappal. She was not given her shoes back. We were right in suspecting mischief ...they keep saying there was a camera or chip or recorder in the shoes. The same shoes were accepted by two airlines - Air India and Emirates," she said.

The minister said according to the family, Jadhav "looked tense and appeared to be talking under pressure". "It was clear that he was tutored...his manner of speaking and behavior showed he was not in good health,” she added.

Jadhav met his family for the first time since his arrest by Pakistan last year, but behind a glass screen, and spoke through intercom. The family was not allowed to speak in their native Marathi language.

ALSO READ | Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife's shoes had metallic substance, claims Pakistan

Here is what all EAM Susham Swaraj said on Kulbhushan Jadhav in Parliament:

#Thank God they didn't say that there was a bomb in her (#KulbhushanJadhav's wife) shoes! If for security reasons she was made to take off shoes, they should have returned them when she was leaving but no, they had to commit some sort of cruelty

#The meeting was started in absence of the Deputy High Commissioner, if he would have seen how clothes of the family members were changed, he would have registered protest there and then 

#It was specifically agreed upon by both sides that media will not be allowed to come close to the family but Pakistani press not only came close to them but also harassed them & hurled taunts at them 

#Jadhav Ji's mother who only wears a saree was forced to wear salwar-kurta. Bindi, bangles & mangalsutras of both mother & wife were removed. Both the married women were made to like widows 

#mother was not allowed to speak in Marathi, 2 Pakistani officials present in the meeting kept stopping her repeatedly but when she continued, the intercom was switched off

#It was nothing like a humanitarian gesture. Human rights of the family members were violated again & again & an environment of fear was created for them

#Pakistani Journalists harassed and heckled Jadhav's wife and mother

#Pakistani authorities exhibited inhuman behaviour towards Jadhav's mother by telling her to remove her Mangalsutra and Bangles

#We expressed our discontent over how Kulbhushan Jhadav's family was treated in Pakistan