“Surgical Strikes” — The Politics And Rise Of Jingoist Television

Politicians may believe, people may believe but journalists should never take anyone on face value, not even army. Their only ally is truth and truth alone. We seem to have forgotten the basic principles of journalism all along and have comfortably turned ourselves into the extension of government in power.

Would you believe if someone tomorrow came to you and claimed he slapped another guy? If this supposed event occurred inside closed doors, probably one will seek proof now that the guy you claim you’ve slapped is denying it. Second, if there is no proof, then you may pass the information as hearsay that he claims he “slapped” the other guy which is perfectly legitimate statement. But nowhere you are supposed to claim the authenticity of the “slap” by yourself if you are a neutral authority whose sole aim is to bring out the truth and call people’s bluff; that is if you are a journalist. If you are a politician, a friend of the party who “slapped” then that’s an altogether different aspect. But if you practice journalism, you rely on facts and facts alone. You report news not state it. The television boxes have gone berserk after Indian Army claimed “surgical strike” across LoC on 29th September, 2016. They have literally gone on war foot.

Media’s job is to hold government in power accountable but the same has long started to defend the government. It should ask questions and people in power should answer — at least that has been the norm across the world. But here, questions are raised by opposition or people (which is welcome) and media is answering them, for the govt. It is in fact defending them and questioning the dissenters. Nationalism is not a word to be used losely as and when when you deem feet. It has many shades of grey. Be it Kashmir, current army operations, Manipur, Maoists, our media especially television media have been at forefront of calling out those who question the government’s stand.

No one can be a true nationalist who is incapable of feeling ashamed if her [or his] state or government commits crimes, including those against their fellow citizens.
- Benedict Anderson

Just glance over the events that occurred after the Indian Director General of military operations, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said in his presser. He mentioned “heavy casualties”, “launchpads” and other terms without giving away the specifics. Be it number of casualties, locations of this terror sites, nothing was made public. Now in a country that has enacted “Right to Information” about a decade ago, this should hardly be the norm. That person from newsroom (these days they are calling it “war-rooms”) may shout his throat out that it’s because of security concerns. But just think about the fact that this particular piece of information is already known to Pakistan. If terror launchpads were attacked and terrorists killed, they already know it. The terrorists who were hit or the Pakistani army which keeps tracks of these groups already knows this. So there is absolutely no harm in making this information public. Yes, the way Indian army got this information or carried “surgical strikes” need not be publicized as that may impeach the security. Also, because this information is not known to Pakistan it need not be divulged. Rest which Pakistan knows can readily be shared. So the question of keeping this information classified due to security concerns never arises. It is but a bluff.

India has fired across LoC and injured/killed Pakistani soldiers before too but such pieces of information were never made public, officially. Part of the reason was probable escalations from across the border. But the fact they have gone on record publicly clearly states the change of strategy from PM Modi towards Pakistan. Strategic restraint is no more part of our Pakistan policy. Credit certainly must be given for this change to PM Narendra Modi rather than army as in India unlike Pakistan, the decisions what army does are taken by the state and not vice versa. Army deserves credit for successful “surgical strikes” but the decision to discard strategic restraint and go public was of government’ and its alone. There are also reports that the targets hit were not significant from military standpoint. If this is true then not going “public” is political decision more than strategic (or security concern) as it would undermine BJP’s political ‘benefit’ if any ahead of polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The posters put across poll-bound states, felicitations of defense minister Manohar Parrikar are but signs that point towards political mileage this “surgical strikes” are going to be milked for.

Similar posters are all around the poll bound states

Arvind Kejriwal in an masterstroke of a video (which later backfired) praised Narendra Modi who he takes potshot against ever too often only to ask him to make the “proof” against “ surgical strikes” public. This he claimed was to defeat the propaganda Pakistan was spreading regarding the fallacy of “surgical strikes”. Congress came forward with similar statements as well. And then all hell broke loose in news studios. “How can they question Indian Army?” was all over the idiot box. The fact that India is a democratic setup and anyone can question anyone was thrown away into trash. Logic, laws of the land were all forgotten. The ‘star’ anchors were all up in their arms to label the ‘troublemakers’. War was here. Don’t know about LoC but in TV studios, it was raining bullets. Kejriwal and others were being questioned over Pakistani press who had reported them. Now the basic question whether Kejriwal has any hand in what gets published in Pakistani press was ignored. The line was drawn. Anyone who dares to question the Indian army was named ‘Pakistani Sympathetic’. As simple as that. In the era of jingoism, killing dissent has become just as easy as sliding knife through butter. At the altar of our soldiers and ‘holy’ army, people who question the government in power and are true torchbearers of democracy are slaughtered daily in our tv studios. This is not to suggest that the question they raise are gospels or right or wrong, but just that they have their right to question and demand answers from those in power. One of media’s job is to channelize these questions to those in power. But that medium has itself started to fire from other end now. It has ceased to remain the medium and has grown into Goliath that decides what people needs to do, think and outrage at. Medium has itself catapulted into the monster it is supposed to contain, question and held accountable.

Our tv studios are seeking war, revenge, “jaw for a tooth” but won’t tell you how India don’t have enough artillery and ammunition resources to fight another war like Kargil. There are reports that indicate we can’t indulge in conventional warfare for straight three days forget the three months of Kargil war. Some generals from high pitched tv studios want to use nukes without realizing that nukes will not just harm Pakistan but India as well. Same goes for Pakistan if it plans to use nukes on Indira.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech given at Kozhikode called Pakistan to fight a war together, against our common enemy — poverty. No tv anchor except for NDTV India’s Ravish Kumar have cared to talk about poverty across borders, the conditions people below poverty lines live in. The “Zero TRP anchor” as Ravish calls himself pointed out why other channels don’t cover poverty. Covering the country’s poor means questioning government — present and past. And questioning is something our tv channels can’t afford. Modi in his speech also differentiated between Pakistani state, Pakistani army and its people. But back in Mumbai, in the heartland of Hindi film industry, Shivsena, BJP’s sister party issued ultimatum for Pakistani artists to leave India. Media did the rest by calling those who supported the artists as “Pak sympathizers”. How does banning them helps India was never answered. The fact that army persons are not well equipped, arms are in shortage are never reported. We are simply not in a stage or position to wage a war.

In our war mongering we have also forgot about our people who live around the borders. People have been moved from border villages into camps. The temporary “exodus” is all happening but their plight is hardly reported. Their fields are ripe for harvest but they are asked to move into camps “for their own safety”. How will they spend their lives if harvest goes waste is a question whose answer doesn’t bother our media. NDTV has done a show from border villages but it is not enough in a vast array of news channels.

Journalists have long forgotten the basics of their craft and turned into TRP-hunters, politicians, well, the less talked about them the better. People too have given to jingoism and mass hysteria. India and Pakistan, two nations separated in 1947 have charted exceptional long time on their own terms for so long. India has for long chosen the path to economical reforms leaving behind the ghost of religion while Pakistan has clinged dear to religion and its hate towards India. It’s high time it looked at state of affairs inside its own land and stressed on its people. It can take India headon later. It first has to undo the damage it has done to itself. And Indians should carefully study what went wrong with Pakistan and why they are where they are. The jingoism and religious oneupmanship will only hit us bad. We all need to stop and think about the things we are doing and introspect. Are we helping to calm the already fragile times or only adding fire to already ‘burning’ times? We need to think it for ourselves. Our TV channels have long forgotten their duties. Hope we still haven’t.