Decisive Truth Under War: How Propaganda Shapes Public Opinion

Revolutions may or may not be televised but wars will always be. In the absence of real footage, clips from video games, videos generated by artificial intelligence and old, unrelated visuals can keep viewers engaged. When facts from official sources are coming late, are scarce or not exciting enough, unverified content on social media platforms can fill in the gap. But the coverage must go on. Every moment belongs to the race for Television Rating Point (TRP)바카라�revenue. Facts are just collateral damage.

On the night of May 6, India launched targeted aerial attacks at some locations in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the Indian military identified these sites as terror training centres. The objective was to avenge the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives. Soon after the news of 바카라�Operation Sindoor바카라� broke, social media platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram got flooded with videos claiming that Pakistan had shot down five Indian aircraft. 

When the US broadcaster CNN asked Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for proof of the claim of shooting down five Indian jets, he said: 바카라�It바카라�s all over social media. Not our social media, the Indian social media.바카라�

A top government functionary citing social media videos as proof of a country바카라�s military success is a new high, or low, in the information war where the boundary between fact and fiction is too blurred to matter. By the time Asif made these remarks, Indian fact-checkers had already identified all those so-called jet-downing videos as old and unrelated. Fact-checkers also identified a series of X handles pretending to belong to Indian army veterans but actually being operated from Pakistan.

But the media in Pakistan continued to celebrate the 바카라�success story,바카라� using the same videos. Anchors at ARY News claimed with great excitement that Pakistan downed multiple Indian fighter jets. Geo TV claimed Pakistan intercepted hundreds of Indian drones. They all shouted in unison that the Pahalgam terror attack was India바카라�s own doing to malign Pakistan, a narrative that the Pakistan government and army have launched. India is the eternal aggressor, who now must be taught a lesson, anchors and analysts cried.

ARY aired reports titled 바카라�Watch: JF-17 Thunder Taking Off to Destroy India바카라�s S-400 Defence System,바카라� 바카라�India바카라�s Cowardly Attack, Pakistan바카라�s Decisive Response바카라�A Global Turning Point바카라� and 바카라�The S-400 Fell, Rafales Tumbled: A First-Hand Account of India바카라�s Strategic Defeat,바카라� and so on.

A war is a scary thing. It turns people into lifeless numbers, destroys properties, infrastructure and livelihood. Financial stress, mass anxiety over uncertainties and diversion of welfare funds for defence purposes strain public life. Panic-driven hoardings cause inflation. But for the media, especially TV news channels, a war turns into a spectacle that people can watch with as intense interest as a highly competitive sports tournament, sitting in the comfort of drawing rooms and bedrooms, sipping hot or cold drinks, munching snacks. As Bertrand Russel notes in his 1915 essay The Ethics of War: 바카라�Of all evils of war, the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth바카라�.바카라�

In Indian states bordering Pakistan, May 8 was a night of horror. Pakistan launched a series of drone attacks and heavy artillery firing targeting India바카라�s civilian population and infrastructure. Sirens, blackouts, sounds of blasts and roars of flying aircraft left people scared and anxious. In India바카라�s TV news channel studios, it was a night of fabulous fantasies and fiction.

Anchors shouted jingoistic hyperboles at the top of their voices, with computer-generated images and animations mimicking fighter jets flying on the screen, sirens and hooters serving as background scores. With uncontrollable excitement, they broke the news that sent the viewers into a frenzy: Pakistan was on the brink of collapse.

The Indian Army had captured Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, triumphantly announced the Zee TV anchor. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was hiding in a bunker, reported Zee as well as Guwahati-based NKTV and Pratidin Time. Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir had been removed in a rebellion and taken into custody, reported Kolkata-based ABP Ananda. Republic and ABP Ananda said INS Vikrant, the Indian Navy바카라�s aircraft carrier, had destroyed Pakistan바카라�s Karachi port. Assamese news channel News Live reported that 12 cities in Pakistan had been destroyed in Indian attacks. ABP Ananda said Balochistan was on its way to liberation from Pakistan and that the Baloch rebels had destroyed the Pakistan army바카라�s camp at Quetta. India TV and ET Now said that India had downed an F-16 Pakistani jet and captured its pilot.

The power of the coverage was so strong that even Union Minister Kiren Rijiju ended up tweeting about India바카라�s attack on Karachi. He later deleted it, though.

The media anchors바카라� hallucinating dreams must have ended by the next day. By morning, fact-checkers had debunked them all. In the evening, the Indian government gave a quite thorough briefing of what transpired on the intervening night of May 8 and 9.

The government said Pakistan military 바카라�carried out multiple violations of Indian airspace바카라� along the entire western border with an intent to target military infrastructure and resorted to firing of heavy-caliber weapons along the Line of Control. 바카라�Indian Armed Forces brought down a number of these drones using kinetic and non-kinetic means,바카라� the army said. An armed UAV of Pakistan attempted to target Bathinda military station, which was detected and neutralised, they added.

The government said that drone intrusions were attempted from Leh to Sir Creek at 36 locations with approximately 300 to 400 drones, likely to test India바카라�s air defense systems and gather intelligence. 바카라�In response to the Pakistani attack, armed drones were launched at four air defence sites in Pakistan. One of the drones was able to destroy an AD radar,바카라� the government said, adding: 바카라�The Indian Armed Forces responded proportionately, adequately, and responsibly.바카라�

The media바카라�s bubble burst. All their sources of information and video clips came from social media platforms.

Misinformation, usually being sensational in nature, spreads faster than facts. In tense situations like a war or an armed conflict, misinformation can travel like missiles바카라�fast and destructive. In the era of live coverage, social media and artificial intelligence, rumours can beat the speed of light and distort reality completely, even if temporarily.

Marketing Messages

An information war is not only about spreading misinformation but also shaping narratives with carefully curated propaganda. As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said during the Tehran Conference on November 30, 1943: 바카라�In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.바카라� Every side in a war carefully guards information considered sensitive. But it goes far beyond protecting sensitive military or strategic information. 

The Pahalgam terror attack had a dark message. The assai­lants selectively killed 25 Hindu men and a Muslim man who refused to allow Hindus to be killed. They let all women and children go and told the women to tell Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi what had been done to them. 

In response, India, which right away blamed Pakistan-based and backed terrorists for the attack, named its operation on terror bases in Pakistan as Operation Sindoor, referring to the vermillion that many Hindu women apply on their forehead as a mark of marriage. In the government briefing on the following day, foreign secretary Vikram Misri was accompanied by two women, a Muslim and Hindu바카라�Colonel Sofia Qureshi and wing commander Vyomika Singh.

If these gave a strong message of women empowerment and secularism to bolster national unity, Pakistan moulded its narrative around the 바카라�death of civilians바카라�, including children, in India바카라�s May 6 attack, to give their offensives on India the following day the colour of a 바카라�just war바카라�. They highlighted former Jammu & Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik바카라�s past comments questioning the Indian government바카라�s role during the Pulwama terror attack (2019), for which India blamed Pakistan.

Citing how Indians themselves questioned government narratives, Pakistani officials said all terror attacks on Indian soil바카라�from Pulwama to Pahalgam바카라�are India바카라�s own handiwork to unfairly implicate Pakistan. They even claimed that the May 7 missile attack on a Sikh Gurdwara in India바카라�s Poonch was India바카라�s own work.

Misri, the Indian foreign secretary, called Pakistan바카라�s charges 바카라�deranged fantasies.바카라� He highlighted that India, being a democracy, allows its citizens space to criticise the government and ask uncomfortable questions바카라�a space that바카라�s missing in Pakistan.

While Misri rightly identified India as a land where the government faces uncomfortable questions, this reckoning also came at a time when the Opposition, civil society members and the independent media had been crying foul over India바카라�s shrinking democratic space in recent years.

Besides, criticising the government in times of an armed conflict carries an element of risk. Senior journalist Vaishna Roy, who criticised the naming of the operation after Sindoor바카라�which she finds patriarchal바카라�faced brutal trolling on social media for questioning the armed forces in times requiring national unity. At a time when the government of India is highlighting India바카라�s internal communal unity as its strength, many Hindu Right-wing social media users threatened secular and liberal voices with action should they try to question the government or the army in any way.

A 바카라�Gentle reminder: Anyone against Operation Sindoor should not be your friend anymore,바카라� said a Facebook page called Indian Army Fans. Many other users echoed the message. Many hyper-nationalist users shared on social media platforms the government emails where to report 바카라�anti-national바카라� posts. To many of them, anything that questions the government in any way is 바카라�anti-national.바카라�

On May 9, The Jaipur Dialogues, a Right-wing propaganda handle with over 4.5 lakh 바카라�followers바카라� on X, set the rules of the game rather precisely. 바카라�In information warfare, perception is the battlefield. If the news damages Pakistan바카라�true or false바카라�amplify it. Post it. Share it. Make it viral. Let panic spread across the border. If the news harms India바카라�even if true바카라�bury it. Suppress it. Disarm it before it spreads.바카라� They clarified that this is not journalism, but war, in which psychological warfare matters. 바카라�Every post is a bullet. Never fire one at your own country.바카라�

While the government of India kept repeatedly warning the media and the masses against falling for misinformation and to trust only the government바카라�s briefings, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a far-Right Hindutva propagandist, strongly defended their right to spread misinformation.

On May 8, he offered a 바카라�tweet of appreciation for all of you who tweeted POSITIVE AUXILIARY ASSISTANCE바카라� in spreading misinformation about the coup in Pakistan, planes running from Pakistan, pilot captured, F-16/J-17 shot down and Karachi/Lahore being attacked. 

바카라�You have no idea how useful you were today. You turned into an electronic warfare arm of the motherland,바카라� he said, adding, 바카라�Anyone who labels you 바카라�fake news바카라� or 바카라�misinformation바카라� is a paid Pakistani 5th column.바카라� In another tweet, he argued that such misinformation is necessary to confuse the enemy.

The Indian government, while trying to block social media handles and news platforms channelling Pakistani narratives, propaganda and misinformation, also blocked the handles of several Indian users and media platforms, triggering protests by a section of the press and civil society. In Pakistan, in contrast, voices critical of the government or the army are indeed too low to be heard.

In his 1938 memoir, Homage to Catalonia, British novelist George Orwell wrote that one of the most horrible features of war is that all the war propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. 바카라�It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a frontline trench, except on the briefest of propaganda tours,바카라� he wrote.

This was a year before World War II began. Two years after the war ended, American psychologist and Nazi trial observer Gustave M. Gilbert wrote in his 1947 book Nuremberg Diary that Hermann Göring, a leading Nazi official, said during a 1946 interview in jail that while the common people don바카라�t want war, it is always a simple matter for political leaders to drag the people along in their war efforts. 바카라�All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacema­kers for lack of patriotism,바카라� Göring was quoted as saying.

Decades after these remarks, we are left to seek truth바카라�the many layers of many truths바카라�for ourselves, navigating webs of fiction and fabrications.

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a journalist, author and researcher