More than 20 years ago, two officers of China’s People’s Liberation Army published a book that subsequently acquired the status of a cult classic. In Unrestricted Warfare: Assumptions on War and Tactics in the Age of Globalization (Beijing: PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House, 1999), Col Qiao Liang and Col Wang Xiangsui outlined the essential ingredients of political warfare in plain language.
Unrestricted warfare “means that any methods can be prepared for use, information is everywhere, the battlefield is everywhere … any technology might be combined with any other technology, and that the boundaries between war and non-war and between military and non-military affairs [are] systematically broken down.” Unfortunately, such unrestricted warfare, at least when it comes to narrative rivalry, is no longer the exclusive preserve of conflicts between competing nations.
During the raging pandemic, it seems as if an unrestricted information war has broken out between opposing political factions, with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance on one side and the opposition parties, backed by a vast array of interested civil society actors, on the other. The controversy over social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter has also flared up at the same time.
While posting promoted content that is paid for, such media companies not only influence opinion but also make large amounts of money doing so, without fully divulging which trends are paid for and which are organic. Now, it seems, they want to take to task the very government of the land, supposedly in the name of freedom of expression, while themselves controlling, muzzling, or endorsing content without full transparency. The Delhi Police, in its investigation of the Toolkit case, hit back, calling Twitter’s allegations “mendacious” and “designed to impede a lawful inquiry”.
For us in India, the danger is that our very freedoms and constitutional guarantees can be used to subvert and sabotage our core values and social solidarity. Our naivete, ignorance, avarice and lack of patriotism can easily be exploited to create unrest and discontent. Everywhere you look, there is out-and-out propaganda on the one hand, or soft deception and fabrication on the other. A great deal of critical acumen is required to sift the true from the false, the authentic from the motivated and the trustworthy from the malign.
Long before the so-called Congress “Toolkit” surfaced, I began to notice the orchestrated smear campaign especially against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and more generally, against India in the global and domestic media. Till this date we don’t know conclusively whether the said toolkit is fake or has basis in fact. However, a certain coordinated campaign with a deliberate attack-Modi slant was evident.
How do disaster narratives attack their chosen targets? They mitigate and deflect responsibility where they want to protect or shield, exaggerate and redirect blame where they want to assault. Such orchestration may be considered a massive exercise in media mischief. It consists not just of massaging the message but ravaging the narrative. How soon the spin turns into a witch hunt, ignoring or glossing over everything that is not grist to its misinformation mill.
Since the second surge of the coronavirus began to spiral out of control in India, a worldwide campaign—from the United States to Australia, with other notable centres in the rest of the free world including the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan—began to unfold. Its main target was the Modi administration, including the prime minister himself, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath following in order of invective and hatred. In the process, the underlying objective also seemed to have been to undermine India’s standing in the eyes of the world and of its own citizens.
The sad fact was that most of these pieces were not written by foreigners, but by Indians themselves, whether stationed in those countries or in India. Most of these members of the erstwhile establishment, derisively called the Khan Market gang of Lutyens Delhi, had strong links of family, reciprocity and patronage with previous regimes or opposition parties. The nexus extended from coast to coast in North America and all over the English-speaking world.
It was not the manner of their marshalling of facts that bothered me, albeit these were obviously slanted. Nor, indeed, their stance, which each writer was entitled to. Yes, let us admit it. We were collectively mistaken, participating in a nationwide delusion that, somehow, we might be spared the worst effects of the pandemic. Perhaps, we suffered from our own unique form of blindness, call it Indian exceptionalism for want of better terminology.
For many in India, the writers of such anti-India tirades were what might be termed “repeat offenders” when it comes to “India-bashing”. Their sharply acerbic and negative portrayals of our current issues and crises have made them much more of bete noires rather than causes celebre in India’s public discourse. That they are of Indian descent but only denigrate India makes their criticism all the more galling.
But I, for one, do not wish to excessively excoriate or dismiss them out of hand. Our critics can actually be our best friends. They can teach us more and hurt us less if we are willing to set our egos aside. And national egos tend to be even more inflated than individual ones, often much more in need of puncturing. India-detractors ably serve this purpose.
But when the script is unvarying and unwavering from start to finish, the writers lose their credibility and ability to intervene effectively. If all they have tried to do is demonise Modi, blame him for every pitfall and misstep in India’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis, crucify him, dump the entire blame of the catastrophe on one individual from start to finish, then they have failed.
More than the bad press that such writers give Modi, they also show their own disdain and derision for India. No wonder many regard them as acting in bad faith, if not betraying their motherland.
(Views are personal)
Makarand R Paranjape
(Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla)
(Tweets @MakrandParanspe)