In the shadow of the horrific Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, 2025, which claimed 26 Hindu lives, Pakistan orchestrated a brazen soft power event at Harvard University. The Pakistan Conference 2025, held on April 27, 2025, under the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, funded by Indian-origin steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, is a chilling example of Pakistan’s ecosystem to whitewash its role as a global terrorism hub.
The Pakistan Conference at Harvard, with over 20 panels and more than 300 attendees, centred on themes like arts, culture, and heritage under the banner “Bridging Divides, Building Tomorrow: Pakistan’s Path to Inclusive Growth and Governance.” However, beneath the surface of intellectual engagement lies a deeper concern—the event serves as an academic whitewash of Pakistan’s long-standing role in fostering terrorism and promoting anti-India narratives.
This event, cloaked in academic legitimacy, is a calculated move to sanitize Pakistan’s blood-soaked legacy while amplifying anti-India narratives, with Harvard’s vast network of media and academic influence.
The Harvard Pakistan Conference partners include National Foods Limited, a major Pakistani food company with a global export presence; the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University, which supports research on South Asia; the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan, which administers academic exchange programmes like Fulbright; ClassACT HR ’73, an initiative by Harvard and Radcliffe alumni; and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School.
The conspiracy’s timeline is damning. On April 16, 2025, Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir called Kashmir Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” stoking tensions. On April 20, Baisaran Valley was inexplicably opened to tourists without security clearance. The Pahalgam attack, perpetrated by The Resistance Front (TRF), an LeT offshoot, involved sophisticated weaponry and digital traces to ISI safehouses in Muzaffarabad and Karachi.
By April 27, the Harvard conference, funded by Mittal, projected Pakistan as a progressive nation, with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb touting economic reforms. Associated Press of Pakistan This sequence—terror followed by academic whitewashing—reveals Pakistan’s soft power strategy.
Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, recently confessed to decades of state-sponsored terrorism, admitting Western backing for these activities. Yet, just days after Pahalgam, the Harvard conference proceeded, ignoring India’s grief.
Harvard’s Role: A Hub of Anti-India Narratives
Harvard’s complicity in this agenda is rooted in its history of promoting divisive narratives, as detailed in Rajiv Malhotra’s book ‘Snakes in the Ganga’. Malhotra argues that Harvard, alongside universities like Columbia and Oxford, colonizes Indian minds by distorting Indian culture, religion, and history through Marxist and Leftist lenses. The university’s Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, established with a 207-crore donation from Mittal in 2017, and projects like the Murthy Classical Library, funded by Infosys’ Narayana Murthy, are often framed as research initiatives but serve as platforms for anti-Bharat literature. Malhotra cites the Mahindra Humanities Centre and Piramal School of Public Health as part of Harvard’s network, which promotes critical theories that vilify Hindu traditions and sow discord.
Harvard’s influence extends to Indian media, with ties to outlets like The Wire, The National Herald, Sabrang, The Caravan, and Tehelka, as noted in Snakes in the Ganga. Through the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard shapes narratives that undermine India’s sovereignty, often framing Kashmir as “Indian-administered” and terrorists as “militants.” Malhotra highlights how Indian students, lured to Harvard for prestige, are brainwashed into adopting anti-India stances, later occupying influential positions in India’s bureaucracy and academia. The 2008 UPA government’s 372.82-crore funding for an Amartya Sen chair at Harvard, as cited in Snakes in the Ganga, exemplifies this trend of Indian resources fueling anti-India agendas.
The Mittal Betrayal: Indian Wealth, Anti-India Agendas
Lakshmi Mittal’s funding of the Pakistan Conference has sparked outrage, with many labeling it a betrayal. Mittal’s institute, while claiming to foster South Asian scholarship, hosted a conference that glorified Pakistan’s narrative while ignoring its terrorism. Speakers like Dr. Ayesha Jalal and Miftah Ismail peddled a vision of Pakistan as a cultural and economic hub, sidestepping its role in Pahalgam and beyond. This aligns with Harvard’s pattern of behaving like a “good cop” in academia, as Malhotra describes, using prestige to mask divisive agendas. Indian business funding, from Mittal to Infosys, is exploited to lend credibility to events that serve Pakistan’s interests, with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Governance and other centers amplifying these narratives globally.
Indian (origin) billionaires are a unique species man!
Lakshmi Mittal and family have a 'South Asia' Institute thingie associated with Harvard University.
Not Indian institute but South Asia Institute.
And true to that name what do they do?
Despite the very recent memory of… pic.twitter.com/nmZzy7sae1— Halley (@halleyji) April 27, 2025
Geopolitical Conspiracy: Pakistan, Harvard, and the West
The Pakistan Conference is a cog in a larger geopolitical machine aimed at containing India’s rise. Western powers, historically propping up Pakistan to counter India, benefit from South Asia’s instability. Pakistan’s military, fueled by decades of U.S. aid, serves as a proxy to keep India entangled in conflict. Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif’s confession of Western-backed terrorism exposes this complicity, yet global media like The New York Times downplay Pakistan’s role, aligning with Harvard’s narrative control. The conference’s timing, post-Pahalgam, suggests a deliberate effort: destabilize India with terror, then rebrand Pakistan as a victim of circumstance.
Harvard’s vast network, from policy-making to media, dictates global perceptions. Its scholarships, chairs, and institutes, often funded by Indian wealth, create a pipeline of “intellectuals” who propagate anti-India rhetoric. Malhotra’s Snakes in the Ganga book flags this as a form of intellectual colonization, with Harvard’s Dalit Panthers projects and distorted translations of Indian texts fueling divisive narratives. The Pakistan Conference, backed by Mittal, is a strategy, leveraging Pakistan’s soft power to obscure its terrorism while Harvard’s prestige ensures global traction.
Critics claim that the Harvard’s role in promoting anti-Bharat narratives must be questioned. The government should investigate businessmen like Mittal, whose philanthropy inadvertently fuels Pakistan’s agenda.
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