The series 'Operation White Sea' by Neer Sen has caused a wide resonance since its release. This six-episode drama, released on August 7th, covers the events of the 1999 Kargil conflict, in which India defeated Pakistan. Some dramatic scenes in the series have made viewers doubt the authenticity of the events that took place.
One such scene is an episode related to Atal Bihari Vajpayee's trip to Lahore in February 1999. At that time, the Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, visited Pakistan. The then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, instructed Parvez Musharraf, First Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of Pakistan, to greet Vajpayee. However, Musharraf did not comply with this requirement and shook Vajpayee's hand instead of performing a military ceremony, which surprised the latter.
In the series, Manu Rishi Chadha played the role of Musharraf, while Vinay Patak and Anjan Srivastava played Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, respectively.
Historical records confirm that this incident took place. Pakistani military leaders boycotted the ceremony organized for Vajpayee's meeting at the Atari-Wag border. The reason for this boycott was the military operation initiated by Pakistan in Kashmir towards India. Nevertheless, Pakistan officially claimed that people entering India in civilian clothes were linked to the separatist organization Indian Mujahideen.
Later, Nawaz Sharif forced Musharraf to participate in the official ceremony and salute the Indian Prime Minister. Musharraf did so reluctantly, but instead of a formal military greeting, he simply shook Vajpayee's hand, which was considered a violation of military and diplomatic protocol.
'Operation White Sea' also shows that Musharraf concealed the true scale of the Kargil conflict from Nawaz Sharif. He convinced the Prime Minister of Pakistan that the operation was only aimed at advancing the activities of the 'Indian Mujahideen' against India. Thus, he fueled Sharif's political ambitions and prepared him to approve the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers into Indian territory.
When Nawaz Sharif learned Musharraf's true intentions, it was too late. Nasim Jaha's book, published in 2018 and titled 'From Kargil to the Coup: Events That Shook Pakistan', also confirms that Musharraf largely kept Nawaz Sharif in the dark during Kargil. He presented it as an expansion of the 'Indian Mujahideen' activities, rather than a direct military operation against the Indian army.
However, there is another point of view. A 2021 article questioned the assertion that Sharif was completely unaware of the Kargil plan. The article, citing Azad Singh Rathore, author of the book 'Kargil: The Heights of Bravery', published in 2016, stated that Sharif was aware of the plan but did not anticipate such serious consequences. According to this article, the main question was not whether Sharif knew about the plan, but why he gave his consent to it. It seems the then Prime Minister of Pakistan did not have an accurate idea of the real strength of both armies on the control line. Sharif expected the Pakistani army to capture Kargil and then establish control over Siachen. Nevertheless, the Kargil campaign turned out to be Pakistan's biggest military mistake since the 1971 war.
