- Role of fake news
In a startling disclosure, EU-based non-governmental organisation EU DisinfoLab revealed an India-sponsored fake, dis-informational network of 265 fake media outlets in 65 countries, including the USA, Canada, Brussels, and Geneva. The network is run by the Srivastava Group of India. It lists New Delhi Times as one of its assets, and also runs a thinktank called International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies. The Institute paid for the travel and accommodation of an unofficial far-right delegation of 23 European Union parliamentarians to Srinagar on 30 October 2013. The trip was arranged by Indian intelligence surrogate Madi Sharma who posed as a self-styled “international business broker”. The delegation’s shikara (boat) ride in Kashmir Lake pictured Kashmir as a heaven in serene peace. Some members however smelt a rat and abandoned the free joy ride.
After connecting the dots, the disinformation watchdog found that The Times of Geneva Online, EP (European Parliament) Today and “4newsagency.com” had shady links to a large network of think tanks, Non-Governmental Organisations, and fake news websites in over 65 countries. The network worked day in and day to create a `mirage’ of anti-Pakistan perceptions by influencing world’s political leaders, international institutions, as well as gullible ordinary folk.
India has proved that it understands dimensions of the fifth generation war or fake news. It knows how to apply its techniques to achieve its objectives
Already EP Today has apologised for aping Russia Today’s content and promised to desist from doing so in future. India used fake websites; together with India’s financial relations (Rafale and AS-400 deals, and trade) with the world, to isolate Pakistan.
It appears India has meticulously implemented Hitler’s propaganda theorems: `The bigger the lie, the better the results (Mein Kampf, pp. 179-180). According to a New York Times piece, the only antidote to fake information is public awareness.
`isolation’ not an overnight exploit: India dovetailed its disinformation policy with structural reforms in its army and intelligence set-up to achieve its objective of isolating Pakistan. Cartographic aggression to include Azad Kashmir and Chinese and Nepalese territories in India was not a hasty step. India prepared for it for over a decade. Sanjiv Tripathi, the longest serving Research and Analysis Wing chief said “the entire J&K, including PoK, is part of India.” He stressed, “R&AW should carry out psychological operations … through seminars, articles and discussions.” Tripathi advised “Pakistan’s step-motherly treatment of its minorities, particularly the Pashtuns, Sindhis, Baluchis and Baltis, offers excellent ground for hosting Indian agents. However, very little is being done, except in PoK.” All security agencies and advisers now report to the new security czar, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. He is aided by four deputies (earlier there was only one). The deputies include former spymasters, Rajinder Khanna, R.N. Ravi, and Pankaj Saran, besides a military adviser (Lt Gen V.G. Khandare).
India’s Strategic Policy Group, idle since Manmohan Singh’s second term, has been revived (to create troubles in Sindh, Balochistan, and KPK). NSA’s head has replaced the hitherto head, the cabinet secretary. He will also head the newly set up Defence Planning Committee and the four-member National Security Advisory Board (Lt Gen S.L. Narasimhan, a China expert, former RAW hand, A.B. Mathur, and Bimal Patel, an academic). A new post of national cyber security coordinator was created under Computer Emergency Response Team head Gulshan Rai (who reports to the PM). K. Ilango, who manipulated the 2015 Sri Lanka elections has been reactivated.
Cyber- and psy-war slots: Indian army chief indicated (2 October 2018) “army could cut over one lakh troops in the next few years and some of them could be assigned new roles” (cyber and psy-war).
disinformation or fifth-generation war in history: ‘Disinformation’ (Russian deziinformatzia) is a concept which finds mention in Sun Tzu’s Ping Fa (Principles of War). Even before Sun Tzu, Kautliya in Arthashastra supported disinformation as a civil and military warfare tool within his concept of koota yuddha (unprincipled warfare as distinguished from dharma yuddha, righteous warfare).
On page 144 of his autobiography Mein Kampf (My struggle), Hitler lambasts Germans `who thought that the work of propaganda could be entrusted to the first ass that came along, braying of his own special talents, and they had no conception of the fact that propaganda demands the most skilled brains that can be found’.
USA’s experience: The USA realised the true potency of information warfare during operations in Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and, above all, in Somalia. US General Leigh Armistead says, “General Aideed of Somalia manipulated the media to keep the militarily superior U.S. forces off-balance throughout most of the operations during 1993. In fact, with the use of a $600 video camera, Aideed changed forever U.S. foreign policy in the region. It was Aideed, a true information warrior, whose actions in Somalia, perhaps more than any other US military operation, showed the innate power of information… By no means is Somalia on par with the United States in a comparison of power of any kind. Yet because Aideed effectively used the mass media to his advantage, he in fact controlled the flow of events’. Since that time, IO has evolved to serve as a model for future… international relations”. I quote from this textbook, taught at US military academies, which was produced in conjunction with the [US] Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security Agency, Washington D. C. Armistead reveals ‘not only the computers connected to the world-wide web but also the air-gapped stand-alone systems are vulnerable to the attack.’
In 1999, President Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 68, titled International Public Information, which was an attempt to gain control over the external messages sent abroad from Washington. Recall Musharraf’s nod to `with us or without’ message. (Information Operations: Warfare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power).
American researchers are studying the influence of information technology on the minds of civilians and soldiers (combat fatigue, youth violence, disobedience, etc.). Books on social psychology contain research which indicates that a man can be motivated to do a crime or act against his own conscience or value system.
India has proved that it understands dimensions of the fifth generation war or fake news. It knows how to apply its techniques to achieve its objectives. India’s former foreign secretary, Shyam Saran says, “The Kautliyan template would say the options for India are sandhi, conciliation; asana, neutrality; and yana, victory through war. One could add dana, buying allegiance through gifts; and bheda, sowing discord. The option of yana, of course would be the last in today’s world.” (How India Sees The World). It appears that Kautliya’s last-advised option, yana, is India’s first option nowadays. It’s time to time for Pakistan to wake up.
