Distortion of truth — a strategic target

To mention love side by side with war in the maxim, "everything is fair in love and war", sounds oxymoronically antithetical. My extrapolation of the saying in the context of Moditva and Indian war hysteria says, "Everything is fair in war and love of war." When the selfish pursuit of personal objectives blinds one going no holds barred in the love of war, the first casualty is the murder of truth — a crime more surreptitiously perpetrated in the times of social media and virtual platforms.

India is trying to camouflage its war hysteria under its anti-terrorism shenanigans. India has misled the world with its anti-terrorism rhetoric, aligning itself with Europe and America in their propaganda against countries sponsoring terrorism and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. As the European and American propaganda couldn't stand the test of time, so would the Indian farce.

India has blacked out the other voices on all social media platforms to spoon-feed its masses with its own distorted and manoeuvred narrative of the Pak-India conflict. The media war now being fought both on mainstream and social media is more ferocious than what is actually happening on the field. It confirms that Modi only wants to hypnotise his people through his jingoism against Pakistan to gain electoral mileage.

Pakistan has challenged India's concocted and paranoid rationale behind the Indian tinkering with peace across the border. Without presenting any proof of Pakistan's involvement in the Pahalgam attack, India has ventured to target the "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan. It has gaslighted the world with half-truths that Pakistan's right to defend is a move to protect terrorists.

The dearth of independent verification caused opacity that triggered a propaganda war. The self-generated opacity provided space for India to act with impunity as 'more sinned against than sinning'. Amnesty International reported that the casualties of the attack are being weaponised and exploited to justify escalation.

India's unprovoked Operation Sindoor, claimed to be retaliatory, was launched to target terrorist infrastructure, not the civilians, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Punjab. However, Pakistan reported the 31 civilian deaths, including children, in Muzaffarabad.

Fake and deepfake images of downed jets and terrorist camps went viral, providing fodder for the domestic audiences as India ordered streaming platforms to erase and ban Pakistani versions. India wants to diversify echo chambers. Pakistani journalists were sent off air. Nevertheless, Pakistani anchorpersons invited their Indian counterparts on their talk shows to unearth the truth, but they expressed their reluctance as it would endanger their safety.

Indian journalist Pravin Sawhney, in his interview with Karan Thapar on The Wire, rued that the Modi government's suppression of truth belies India's claim of being the world's biggest democracy.

"So when you are at a crisis stage and you don't want sensible voices to speak, explanations being given, then there is something wrong," he said, adding, "This information war has to be made sensible." The transmission of The Wire was suspended for airing the truth.

This conflict is more between truth and falsehood than between two countries. On the Indian media's visuals of "shot-down Pakistani missiles and fighter jets", the DG ISPR, during a presser, exclaimed, "What a mockery of journalism!" Even in Pakistan, the zealots of a political party in their grudge against the army are eager to swallow Indian propaganda, forgetting that "patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president..."

The UN and other neutral bodies can no longer stay unconcerned about the claims of civilian casualties and terrorist targets. The weaponisation of narratives does not kill truth as collateral damage, rather it distorts the truth as a strategic target. Mainstream media and platforms of social media must resist state pressure and prioritise verified reporting over sensationalism and jingoism.

The world will have to stand behind the truth lest it be replaced with half-truths. To know the truth must be a fundamental right of every country and to act by the truth, a moral responsibility.