Calling terrorists ‘militants’, ‘gunmen’, ‘armed men’, ‘attackers’, or ‘assailants’ hurts our sensibilities and reminds us that Western media generally treats Kashmir as a disputed territory.
Many used the occasion to praise Britain, overlooking the financial exploitation of India’s resources and the role it played in exacerbating the Hindu-Muslim divide.
To understand the depth of bias against India or the lack of understanding of ground reality in India, one only needs to examine the headlines from Western media covering the protests in colleges of both countries.
In ‘Western Media Narratives on India’, Umesh Upadhyay writes about how former colonisers maintain their sway using media. He focuses on how the narrative was spinned in India from 1947 to now.
Israel is paying a heavy price today for ignoring the vicious propaganda unleashed by academic cabals in the West. India runs the same risk unless it takes the battle of words forward.
If Covid is the biggest human tragedy of our times, then journalists have to show it, tell it, write it. There is no nationalism involved in journalism.
Western media is woke on everything under the sun, but remains deaf, dumb and blind to other cultures, especially the Eastern countries’ sensibilities.
From Mohun Bagan and East Bengal to Mohammedan Sporting, footbclubs once shaped identity, pride and belonging across Bengal’s social fabric. Now, the political field has taken over.
American objectives are unmet. They neither have muscle nor motivation to resume the war. As for Iran, the regime didn’t just survive, it’s now led by more radical individuals.
“What happens now”, the author asks. It seems it is a full circle, almost all International media consider Kashmir a disputed region and India is now hyphenated with Pakistan. After 9/11, the Nuclear Deal between USA and India, the 26/11 the international media were convinced that Pakistan was a sponsor of terrorism and was kind of shunned by all major countries except only China and North Korea. But then came a 56-inch authoritarian PM in India who used hugging diplomacy, managed events and showing-off bravado in public to improve India’s image abroad. All this was just soft power. The hard power on the other hand increased only a little. The inter-governmental agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighters was a good move, that too was entrenched with crony capitalism when the PM wanted a specific business entity to get the deal. The Agniveer Scheme doesn’t seem to give any benefits, in fact it seems to decrease the hard power. The Surgical Strike, the Balakot air strike were surprise attacks and hence succeeded because of surprise element. It made Pakistan look weak, but it didn’t deter Pakistan from its policy of sponsoring terrorism. So in reality there is hardly change except that the article 370 was removed which unnecessarily created confusing power struggle between J&K and India. The unnecessary hype is now forcing India to take some action and all the pressure is falling on the Indian Defense forces. Since independence, the Indian Defense forces have never made any mistakes. It is the civilian leadership which forced it to fail as in the case of 1962. However in 1965 and in 1971 it proved how disciplined and great this organization. It 1971 specifically it stood against some politicians who wanted India to attack soon. It patiently waited for around 6 months, choose its own time and gave India the most spectacular victory in the biggest war after the second world war. Now also the Indian Defense Force should act as per its own choice of time and place.
“What happens now”, the author asks. It seems it is a full circle, almost all International media consider Kashmir a disputed region and India is now hyphenated with Pakistan. After 9/11, the Nuclear Deal between USA and India, the 26/11 the international media were convinced that Pakistan was a sponsor of terrorism and was kind of shunned by all major countries except only China and North Korea. But then came a 56-inch authoritarian PM in India who used hugging diplomacy, managed events and showing-off bravado in public to improve India’s image abroad. All this was just soft power. The hard power on the other hand increased only a little. The inter-governmental agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighters was a good move, that too was entrenched with crony capitalism when the PM wanted a specific business entity to get the deal. The Agniveer Scheme doesn’t seem to give any benefits, in fact it seems to decrease the hard power. The Surgical Strike, the Balakot air strike were surprise attacks and hence succeeded because of surprise element. It made Pakistan look weak, but it didn’t deter Pakistan from its policy of sponsoring terrorism. So in reality there is hardly change except that the article 370 was removed which unnecessarily created confusing power struggle between J&K and India. The unnecessary hype is now forcing India to take some action and all the pressure is falling on the Indian Defense forces. Since independence, the Indian Defense forces have never made any mistakes. It is the civilian leadership which forced it to fail as in the case of 1962. However in 1965 and in 1971 it proved how disciplined and great this organization. It 1971 specifically it stood against some politicians who wanted India to attack soon. It patiently waited for around 6 months, choose its own time and gave India the most spectacular victory in the biggest war after the second world war. Now also the Indian Defense Force should act as per its own choice of time and place.