Chinese state affiliated mediaperson Shen Shiwei today took to Twitter to mock Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman for getting the Vir Chakra by President of India for his heroics during the February 2019 Balakot Air Strikes as Wing Commander.
Sharing an image of the then Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in captivity of Pakistani soldiers, who had seemingly assaulted him, Shiwei mocked him for the torture he had to undergo while in Pakistan army captivity. Abhinandan won the Vir Chakra for showing exemplary courage during the Balakot air strikes that were launched to destroy terrorist launchpad after the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019. He shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during an aerial combat on February 27, 2019, days after the Pulwama terror attack.
On 26th February 2019, India retaliated with an air strike at terror camps in Balakot. A day later, Pakistan sent its jets which Wing Commander Varthaman shot down. In the process, he flew his MiG 21 over to Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir. He was then captured by Pakistani forces. Later, a heavily edited video of him was released by Pakistan where he was shown having tea and ‘complimenting’ the tea served to him. After that, Pakistanis have regularly used the ‘tea’ jibe to mock India.
Pakistanis and anti-India people spreading propaganda against Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman
A day after IAF Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman was awarded the Vir Chakra award, ‘journalist’ Michael Kugelman took to Twitter to cast aspersions about India’s success in shooting down a Pakistani F-16 jet. Kungelman alleged that Abhinandan shooting down Pakistani F-16 was not true. He is a writer with of the weekly ‘South Asia Brief’ on Foreign Policy portal. Foreign Policy was at the forefront of spreading misinformation that the US officials ‘counted’ the F-16s they had given to Pakistan and none of them were missing and hence Abhinandan did not shoot down any aircraft.
However, soon after the claim was debunked by Pentagon. The US Defence Department also distanced itself from the claims made by Foreign Policy. It said, “As a matter of policy, the Department does not publicly comment on details of government-to-government agreements on end-use monitoring of US-origin defence articles…It is important to note that since January 2018, the United States government has suspended security assistance to Pakistan.”
However, despite that, many Pakistanis and such people with seemingly vested interest have been continuing to spread the propaganda against India. Now, Chinese state media, too, joined the Pakistanis, to mock India. Not surprising, since tremendous funding being pushed into Pakistan by China, Pakistan is quite on its way to become a rental state of expansionist China. And makes tactical sense of Chinese state media to keep humouring Pakistanis.
