Did Pervez Musharraf really insult Vajpayee, backstab Nawaz Sharif? What's real in Netflix's Operation Safed Sagar

Netflix's Operation Safed Sagar presents Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistan President, as the villain of Kargil War, a depiction seeped in reality.

Netflix’s war drama Operation Safed Sagar is earning praise for its realistic depiction of the Kargil War and the role of the Indian Air Force in it. The show has earned acclaim from both audiences and critics for its attention to detail and how painstakingly it has recreated several moments and episodes from the recent history. Among the talking points of the show is the depiction of former Pakistan president (and then Army chief) Pervez Musharraf. The show depicts Musharraf as the chief conspirator behind Pak Army’s operation to seize Kashmir. But how much of it is reality? We take a look:

Manu Rishi Chaddha (L) as Pervez Musharraf and Vinay Pathak (C) as Nawaz Sharif in Operation Safed Sagar.

Did Musharraf violate the Shimla Agreement?

Operation Safed Sagar shows that Musharraf (played by Manu Rishi Chaddha), then the Pakistani Army chief, devises a strategy to occupy the Indian Army posts on the snowy peaks of Kashmir during the winter after the Indian forces retreat as per the Shimla Agreement. This was based completely on reality. The 1972 Shimla Agreement between the two countries maintained a status quo where both Indian and Pakistani forces retreated from the high-altitude peaks during the winters only to return in the spring. But in 1999, when Indian soldiers returned, they were ambushed by Pakistani armed personnel who had occupied their posts.

Manu Rishi Chaddha plays Pervez Musharraf in Operation Safed Sagar.

Musharraf’s non-salute to PM Vajpayee

The Kargil War erupted right after a historic peace summit between India and Pakistan, led by the respective Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif. In the show, as PM Vajpayee delivers an address in Lahore, Musharraf refuses to salute PM Vajpayee (Anjan Srivastava). This is based in reality, too, as none of the Pakistani armed forces chiefs received PM Vajpayee at the Wagah border as per protocol and later did not salute the Indian Prime Minister. In retaliation, two years later, Indian Air Chief Marshal Tipnis, similarly avoided giving a formal salute to Musharraf during the ceremonial reception at the 2001 Agra Summit.

Pervez Musharraf did eventuallly greet Atal Bihari Vajpayee when they met in Agra in July 2001 to discuss and resolve the decades-long Kashmir conflict. (AFP)

The ‘lie’ to Nawaz Sharif

In the show, Musharraf unilaterally orchestrates the entire conflict, keeping even his Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (played by Vinay Pathak) in the dark. In reality, there are two accounts of this episode. For years, Nawaz Sharif claimed he was kept in the dark about the full extent of the Kargil operation. “Mr Musharraf had kept it secret from me and also from his core commanders, his other colleagues, which was revealed later. I also was stunned when I heard from Mr Vajpayee that our regular troops and regular army are engaged in this battle in Kargil,” he told Shekhar Gupta in 2007.

However, Musharraf maintained that Nawaz Sharif was always aware of the operation, and he even visited the army bases to take stock of the situation. “Look at these pictures. In one of these pictures, I am receiving him (Nawaz Sharif), in another he is being briefed by Commander Mehmood at Kel, who later became DG ISI, while in yet another he is addressing the troops there. All these pictures were taken the same day,” Musharraf told the Business Plus Channel in 2006.

Nawaz Sharif being greeted by Pervez Musharraf at the Skardu Army Base during the height of Kargil War.

The China tape that nailed Pakistan

In the show, Musharraf visits Pakistan to garner their support in the conflict against India. There, while talking to a commander, he mentions that the insurgents in Kashmir are Pakistani soldiers and not mujahideen as Pakistan had claimed. This call is recorded by Indian intelligence and later used to nab Pakistan’s lie. The incident was shown almost exactly how it occurred. In 1999, the R&AW intercepted a call between Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz, Chief of General Staff and Pervez Musharraf, where the two admitted that the insurgents were Pak armymen. This recording was later released publicly, leading to global criticism of Pakistan.

About Operation Safed Sagar

Operation Safed Sagar retells the story of Golden Arrows, a squadron of the Indian Air Force that played a pivotal role in the Kargil War. The squadron of MiG-21s was responsible for identifying and bombing Pakistani-occupied posts in Kashmir, allowing the Indian Army to reclaim some strategic peaks in the Kargil sector. The show stars Siddharth and Jimmy Shergill, apart from Abhay Verma, Dia Mirza, Prajakta Koli, Mihir Ahuja, Taaruk Raina, Arnav Bhasin, and Amrita Bagchi. It is currently streaming on Netflix.