By Sushil Kutty
‘Who hasn’t heard of Julian Assange?’ Legions of Indians haven’t. Those few who had heard of Julian Assange soon forgot the taste of his name swirling on their tongues. In fact, who was Julian Assange — journalist, publisher, WikiLeaks founder; Internet sensation, despicable foreign agent, what — harbinger of Arab Spring? For 12 years Julian Assange lived in “confinement and detention”. Some would say confinement of his own making. Not many think of him now even if they had heard of him.
Does the world care? People have better things to do. Crores of Indians haven’t the time of the day for Assange. Even at this moment of his “freedom”, there aren’t many Indians who give Julian Assange a thought. For Indians, it is “Assange, who?” A new government has taken charge and a big section is asking more about George Soros than about Julian Assange. India’s three-time Prime Minister and ‘Vishwaguru’, Narendra Modi, is facing a political challenge to find time for Assange. India’s newly crowned Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has his own goals to bother about Assange’s post-penitentiary programmes.
For the common variety of Indians, there is poverty, and there is also politics over poverty. Who has the time for Assange? The plea deal he worked out with the Biden administration doesn’t evoke reactions from Indians whose worldview is cornered by the Gulf countries and, till recently, by how Prime Minister Narendra Modi had become the go-to international troubleshooter, which died its own death with Modi’s “brought down”.
There was no chance Julian Assange crossed EAM S Jaishankar’s mind, forget that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, Julian’s release from his own confinement hasn’t made Indians react. The Aussie online publisher, who founded WikiLeaks, walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and took sanctuary there after a relentless chase by a sexual assault in Sweden. Like all “victims” of charges of sexual assault, Assange said it was a lie. People believed him. Some said his silver-hair helped Assange on the world-stage. He even took credit for the series of “uprisings” — the “Arab Spring’.
Assange became the most-recognized face in the western world, the man who used the democratizing potential of the Internet to trigger political upheavals in multiple geographies. And he seemed to have the keys to information with the potential to “expose” top world powers including the United States of America. Assange’s WikiLeaks breached security codes and chanced upon troves of secret US military and diplomatic documents from the year 2009 to 2011, his brazen flings with US retribution waiting. He couldn’t have been more reckless.
The Swedish sexual assault charge drove Assange into hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. What did India and Indians think of Assange and his travails? Nothing. India and Indians went about their daily routines pretty much like they had before Julian Assange was declared as one of the United States’ “Most Wanted”. India continued to view Julian Assange as someone beyond its pale.
India was a minnow on the world stage. Now, Assange is out of WikiLeaks and what those leaks landed him in — 12 years within four walls and a roof overhead. Assange is “free”, and “transformed”. And the internet, once his playground and playmate, too, has been “divided up” by tech oligarchs and the disparate rulers who Assange targeted have found their own antidotes to fight “Arab Spring-like” situations without fear of Julian Assange.
Today, only those with receding hairlines remember WikiLeaks. Those who make more visits to the dentist than to the neighbourhood gym. Julian Assange stewed in his embassy sanctuary for more than a decade while WikiLeaks withered in neglect. Pro-democracy liberals found other means to meet their ends even as the Kremlin stepped in to turn geopolitics on its head. Age was not on Assange’s side and his health took a pasting. Five years in British detention took a toll.
The Swedish sexual assault charges were dropped only to be replaced with “violation of the Espionage Act”. Julian Assange was accused of “publishing military documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as diplomatic cables.” The man was pushed straight into a long legal battle and the USA couldn’t wait to secure his extradition.
So on June 25, Assange was in a plane to Saipan, an island in the US-administered Northern Mariana Islands, there to plead guilty to one charge of espionage, which will help him avoid more years in jail. It is like Rahul Gandhi asking Narendra Modi for the deputy speakership post in return for the Speaker’s chair. America’s Department of Justice has agreed to spare Julian Assange. Once he is done with the Saipan mission, Assange will head for Australia, to reunite with his family. The plan, says his wife, is to spend time “in contact with nature” and “start a new chapter”.
For the United States, Julian Assange was the man who endangered the lives of American soldiers who were fighting a war. For Australia and Australians, the incarceration of Julian Assange was well past its expiry date and it was time he was returned “home”. For India and Indians, Julian Assange is an alien and it didn’t matter what happened to the Julian Assange story. Whatever happens, the world has changed and continues to change. India has its own promises to keep and a long way to go. Indian journalists are mostly cocooned in their own environment operating within the official framework.. Assange’s ideals are too distant for them. Indian media and newsmen can take a few lessons from Assange episode but will they? (IPA Service)
