Caught Behind: Dhoni’s decoy innings in 370 power play
Srinagar, Sep 7: Was Indian World Cup-winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni stumped on a different pitch, or did he play a masterstroke on a no-ball?
Did Dhoni the nightwatchman shield team Modi’s biggest over in the 370 game, or was he just a cover in Kashmir’s constitutional over?
What did India’s World Cup-winning captain have to do with the abrogation of the special semi-autonomous status of J&K?
The book, ‘370: Undoing the Unjust, A New Future for J&K’, published by BlueKraft Digital Foundation with a foreword by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mentions that Indian cricketing legend and former captain, Dhoni, was used as a “decoy” in the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that accorded a semi-autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The book, on page 366, mentions, “Modi asked (National Security Adviser Ajit) Doval to leak in select circles a purported foreign visit on 5 August. As the NSA’s presence in Delhi was considered necessary if India was undertaking any big decisions pertaining to Kashmir, many, especially external actors, did not anticipate 5 August as the D-Day. Lt Gen Dhillon also made a packed schedule for 5 August to misdirect. He scheduled a visit to the LoC, which usually took him almost half a day. He invited M S Dhoni, who was in Kashmir for Territorial Army training, for a meeting in the morning and for dinner at his residence. As the dinner was prescheduled, even if there was any leak, they would report that the general was going to be occupied with routine activity on 5 August.”
A political analyst in New Delhi said, “The book indicates that Dhoni was appointed a decoy to shift the focus from Centre’s action of revoking Article 370.”
On August 5, 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in New Delhi revoked Article 370 and divided J&K state into two federally-governed union territories – J&K and Ladakh.
The book does not clarify whether Dhoni willingly served team Modi or was used as a decoy, with his presence in Kashmir on the very day Article 370 was nullified, to provide a perfect cover for keeping prying eyes and ears off the scent.
After India won the One Day International Cricket World Cup in 2011, Dhoni was conferred the honorary rank of a Lieutenant Colonel in the 106 Territorial Army Battalion (Para).
The Team India captain served in Kashmir from July 31 to August 15, 2019, and performed duties of patrolling besides guard duty and post duty.
The unit that Dhoni served is part of counter-insurgency Victor Force.
The former Indian captain is also a qualified paratrooper who completed five parachute training jumps with the Territorial Army unit in 2015.
To serve his regiment in Kashmir, he once made himself unavailable for a West Indies cricket tour.
Crouched behind the stumps or sending the ball into Wankhede’s stands in 2011, for Dhoni, whose cricketing life has been defined by calm under pressure, the role seemed strangely fitting, but whether it was intended or unintended remains unclear.
On August 5, 2019, morning in Kashmir, Dhoni, who remains the only captain in history to have lifted all three ICC white-ball trophies – the 2007 T20 World Cup, the 2011 ODI World Cup, and the 2013 Champions Trophy - was no longer just India’s “finisher”.
He was a part of an elaborate piece of statecraft.
Without lifting a bat, Dhoni helped team Modi script a move that left everyone stumped.
