Source: Newsonair
Zainab Asif Dar
During the recent standoff between Pakistan and India, fact-checkers struggled to keep pace with the plethora of fake news making the rounds on social media. There was an unprecedented deluge of disinformation on both social media and mainstream news channels in India in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and the armed conflict between India and Pakistan in the ensuing days. The Indian media mocked common sense and journalism with its farcical claims of India annihilating major Pakistani cities on May 7 and 8. The Hindutva warriors also gloated on social media over India’s fictional military triumph. This media fiasco was later termed as psy-ops by the Pakistani military. The Government of India may try to evade the blame for India’s mendacious claims made by the media. However, the Indian media works hand in glove with the government to perpetuate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fascist Hindutva ideology.
Anti-Pakistan jingoism and Islamophobia are at the core of Modi’s fascist Hindutva playbook. Both as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and Prime Minister of India since 2014, Modi’s success has hinged on espousing the Hindu supremacist ideology of Hindutva. At the same time, his political legacy has been tainted by instigating Islamophobia, casteism, and increasing tensions with Pakistan. In line with fascism’s insistence on privileging “sons of the soil”, in this case Hindus, while excluding minority groups, Modi referred to Muslims as infiltrators in his 2024 election campaign. The promises of promoting Hindutva ideology at the expense of other minorities were delivered through the erasure of history of the Muslim rule in textbooks, the enactment of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) . Muslims have also been the target of hate crimes, mob lynchings, and violence based on conspiracy theories such as love jihad and on flimsy allegations of beef consumption. This comes as no surprise as the Bharatiya Janata Party is part of Sangh Parivar, which is headed by a right-wing and Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). M.S. Golwalkar, the second chief of RSS, gave a very hierarchical concept of Hindu nationhood, in which Hindus were placed at the top of the pecking order.
The Indian media has been a purveyor of both a hawkish foreign policy towards Pakistan and Islamophobia. Many media channels have consistently and vehemently promoted Modi’s narrative, so much so that those channels are colloquially referred to as “Godi Media” (Modi’s lapdogs). Meanwhile, India fares poorly on the Press Freedom Index, which Reporters Without Borders has attributed to political alignment and highly concentrated media ownership. Modi’s close allies and business magnates, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, have tightened their grip over the media by acquiring various media companies. Because of its massive cultural footprint, Modi has also capitalized on Bollywood’s influence to spread anti-Pakistani propaganda. He is often seen inviting and meeting Bollywood celebrities. To ramp up anti-Pakistan sentiment, there has been a surge in movies that show Pakistanis as miscreants, which can safely be termed as Bollywood’s obsession with Pakistan.
In the wake of the Pahalgam attack, Indian media hurled accusations and weaponized disinformation, holding Pakistan responsible for the attack despite a lack of evidence. Headlines like We Want Revenge were displayed on nationalist TV channels such as Republic TV, and #PakistanSponsoredTerror was trending on social media. The so-called military analysts also called for war on news channels.
Social media was also rife with fake news and disinformation after the Pahalgam attack and during India’s Operation Sindoor. AI-generated photos of the victims of the attack were spread. Some users spread fake resignation letters of Pakistan Army personnel. The absurd cycle of fake news continued after the ceasefire, when an X user posted about radiation spreading as a result of India’s attack in Pakistan’s Northern region, and a fake document from the Pakistani government regarding radiation was also circulated.
To curb dissent and stop opposing narratives from reaching the masses, the Indian government relied heavily on media censorship. The government not only banned Pakistani news channels but also targeted one of the independent news outlets, The Wire. The X handles of Maktoob Media and other outlets critical of the government were banned for some time as well. In the latest spate of blatant censorship, the Indian government has banned global media outlets such as Global News, TRT, and Xinhua News.
To earn brownie points on the progressive front, the press briefings on India’s Operation Sindoor were delivered by two female military personnel, Colonel Sofia Qureshi and Vyomika Singh. A Muslim professor of Ashoka University, Ali Khan Mahmudabad, was arrested for being critical of these press briefings in a Facebook post. He had merely pointed out the hypocrisy of praising female officers doing press briefings on Operation Sinhoor, while the victims of mob lynchings weren’t being equally protected as Indian citizens. However, since the Hindutva ideology thrives on misogyny as well, a BJP minister labeled Colonel Sofia Qureshi as “Sister of Terrorists” soon after the ceasefire. While the Muslims in India and Kashmiri Muslims became the target of hate crimes in the wake of Pahalgam attack, the recent insensitive reference to the massacre of Muslims in Bhagalpur in BJP Karnataka’s X post was an overt admission of BJP’s anti-Muslim prejudice and violence.
The fact of the matter is that, notwithstanding fake news and disinformation, no evidence has linked the Pahalgam attack to Pakistan. Therefore, the media war frenzy and resultant military misadventure can be attributed to a bid to make the world believe in the mythical peace in Kashmir, which the Modi government keeps misleading the people about. The region remains on the brink of another crisis as the BJP ministers continue to give incendiary speeches and statements regarding the continuation of Operation Sindoor. India’s Defense Minister, Ranjnath Singh, terming Operation Sindoor as a trailer of what is to come also does not help with diffusing tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Therefore, a fragile ceasefire prevails in tandem with Modi’s fascism backed by the media’s disinformation campaign. This military bravado might serve the short-term electoral interests but risks regional peace and security. Unfortunately, the Modi government, aided by a jingoistic media, has certainly prioritized the politics of hate over regional stability.
Zainab Asif Dar is a lecturer at the Kinnaird College for Women.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pakistan Politico.
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