“Ashwatthama Hatha: Iti, Narova Kunjarova,” stated Yudhishthira in the battle of Kurukshetra, to his guru, and the supreme commander of the Kauravas, Dronacharya. Ashwathama is dead, and then he whispers, that he is not confident if it is man or beast. Dronacharya loses heart and offers up on the battle, requires up the meditative pose and is beheaded by Dhristadhyumna. In the battle, for the Pandavas to have a fighting likelihood of victory, it was crucial to remove Dronacharya. A lie uttered by the most truthful man in the planet was the disinformation required to attain it. It was the method to win the war. And it worked. Chanakya talked about Gudayuddha, or the secret war – that made use of clandestine strategies, such as misinformation, to win wars.
Disinformation is not a modern day phenomenon. It has been made use of for centuries, if not aeons, to acquire strategic benefit more than foes. However, given that the final century, tools of mass media have been very successful in spreading propaganda and disinformation. The Nazis made use of it properly to demonise Jews, Communists, Gays and other individuals and pave the way to attempt and annihilate everyone who did not match in with their ideals. The Soviets made use of it to spread Communism. The CIA had a robust policy of disinformation and misinformation, normally underwriting complete publications they had journalists on their payroll and justified it as portion of the cultural war on Communism.
Using airwaves
In India, it is believed that the CIA was generous in spreading funds to the media to assure that America won the war of perception. During the Cold War, the American-backed Voice of America and the Soviet-backed Radio Moscow spread disinformation working with the airwaves. Each demonising the other side.
Pakistan, for the longest time, has had a incredibly sophisticated disinformation machine, not only working with sophisticated lobbying firms, and PR agencies, but sponsoring seminars, junkets and research that show it in a favourable light. There has been tremendous disinformation about Jammu and Kashmir not just inside the state, but in western capitals. And more lately, there has been an try to sow seeds of distrust in between India and the Arab planet by way of a sophisticated operation, with fake accounts.
China employs a mixture of its monetary heft and propaganda to see its objectives fulfilled. In the aftermath of the Covid outbreak, it has been all the more active in attempting to portray itself in a very good light.
Each of these nations is following what they think to be national interest. And they employ all techniques, such as disinformation, to attain strategic ambitions. The query is: How do we judge India, if it is alleged that we are carrying out the very same?
Indian interests
Last week, the independent non-profit EU Disinfo Lab broke the story of a 15-year-old operation by an Indian-controlled organization primarily based out of the EU, placing out the Indian point of view on planet challenges, and at the very same time, spreading disinformation about Pakistan and China. They stated they had unearthed “a vast network of 265 coordinated fake local media outlets in 65 countries serving Indian interests, as well as multiple dubious think tanks and NGOs. This network was active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content designed to, primarily, undermine Pakistan.”
The report claims that this network integrated fake news internet sites, compliant news agencies, and the potential to spread a particular agenda across geographies. Additionally, a Reuters report on disinformation, two years ago stated, “A handful of sophisticated state actors use computational propaganda for foreign influence operations. Facebook and Twitter attributed foreign influence operations to seven countries (China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) which have used these platforms to influence global audiences.”
The EU Disinofo Lab says that the aim of this operation is to raise the level of anti-Pakistan and anti-China feelings inside India and more importantly, to “to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India, to damage the reputation of other countries and ultimately benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN”. These are not ambitions you can fault.
That India has been defending her national interest for the final 15 years, by means of a campaign of propaganda and disinformation, should really not be specifically shocking. What should really be shocking is that we started carrying out this only 15 years ago, even though other individuals have been carrying out this for a lot longer. In the genuine planet, exactly where actions have consequences, not indulging in disinformation when absolutely everyone else in the game is carrying out so, would be a folly. And it is this lens of realpolitik that we need to have to view these allegations with.
The writer operates at the intersection of digital content, technologies and audiences. She is a columnist, going to faculty and filmmaker.