by Usman Ali Khan 2 January 2021
In this information age, world is plagued today by the exponential proliferation of disinformation and Information warfare (IW). This indirectly is exacerbating social discord, competing nationalism, discrimination, hate speech, stigmatization, planned dissemination of news, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and related intolerance.
On 15th November 2021, A UN General Assembly’s committee unanimously adopted a Pakistan-sponsored resolution that calls for multidimensional response to counter all forms of disinformation that erodes human rights. Ambassador Munir Akram said Pakistan would continue to use all means to counter disinformation by both national means and through international cooperation with member states and other stakeholders under the umbrella of the United Nations.
As for South Asian region, India’s main strategic goals include establishing its hegemony in the region, portraying itself as a major bulwark against China in the eyes of the U.S. and portray India as a market to fuel Military Industrial Complexes of major states. An independent and economically strong Pakistan is perceived as the biggest hurdle in the fulfilment of Indian hegemonic ambitions. Hence, since 2005, the Indian state machinery has worked persistently with a dual goal to consolidate India’s power and image in the world, while attempting to damage the reputation of Pakistan. Subsequently, India has tried to concoct such version about Pakistan with deception and outright lies.
Pakistan has been a target of IW for long, deliberately used by the West in close collaboration with India. There are various deliberate propaganda campaigns that are being run against Pakistan at an international level to change the perception about Pakistan. Pakistan is confronting numerous challenges (both internal and external) due to these propaganda campaigns. Along with hostile foreign media, New Delhi has always brewed the anti-Pakistan curry in its witches’ cauldron by persistently accusing Pakistan. India is actively involved in portraying Pakistan as a terrorist state to put pressure on the country through non-stop malicious propaganda, while deflecting international community attention from its internal crusade against minorities and non-Hindus within India.
For maligning Pakistan’s repute in the international arena, India has never spared a moment from blaming Pakistan over flimsy grounds. This can be further understood by analyzing the major past events that happened in India i.e., from chaos in Karnataka in April 2021 and the Mumbai attacks in 2008 etc. Pakistan has been subjected to unjustifiable accusations for every incident of restlessness in New Delhi. New Delhi not only contends Pakistan but also convinces other major players in the international arena to think the same. In the meanwhile, whenever proof has been claimed from New Delhi, Indian government has always nose-dived to produce it in front of international statutory bodies.
Unfortunately, truth and logic are always missing in the Indian investigations. We have observed that 26/11 was proven a false flag by none other but New Delhi’s own Intelligence agencies. There are various books, interviews and articles that have thoroughly described the sham that ‘claims’ regarding 26/11 actually are. ‘Who killed Karkare’’ and ‘Betrayal of India- Revisiting the 26/11 Evidence’ by Elias Davidsson are among the notable books published on the subject.
Following rushed withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan, international media outlets raised concerns regarding Pakistan’s nuclear safety and security marinated in Indian animosity towards Pakistan. Scapegoating others for one’s failures never helps. One gets astounded by knowing the facts that in 2016, the EU mandated Conflict Armament Research’s report published upon weapons’-specific issues in conflict area, stated that seven Indian companies along with others were found incorporating components used by the Islamic State (IS) to fabricate improvised explosive devices (IEDs). More importantly, the report noted that “seven Indian companies manufactured most of the detonators, detonating cord, and safety fuses documented by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) field investigation teams. Under Indian laws, transfer of this material requires a licence.” Yet the world’s powerful states have ignored this unearthing of a nuclear smuggling racket in India.
India is struggling hard to shape international opinion and use every possible mean to discredit its adversaries, especially Pakistan since its inception which was debunked recently by EU DisinfoLab. In December 2020, the EU Disinfo Lab made revelations in its report on the “widespread Indian network of subversive activities” vindicated Pakistan’s position and exposed its detractors. The report tracked these operations back to a Delhi-based holding company, the Srivastava Group (SG). EU Disinfo Lab, an independent EU-focused NGO which monitors disinformation online, revealed in the report “India Chronicles” that has uncovered an entire network of coordinated UN-accredited NGOs that supported and propagated Indian interests and criticised Pakistan in Geneva and in other multilateral forums. “It is the largest network we have exposed,” said Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of EU DisinfoLab, which undertook the investigation and published an extensive report. Such disinformation campaigns by India do not only affect Pakistan but on a broader term the world community, international organizations and state systems.
In the backdrop of all this, battling misinformation remains the biggest challenge for Pakistan. It ranges to a number of issues but the most important issue lies with the case of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It is an open secret that India wanted to place Pakistan on the FATF’s ‘black-list’. However, India has miserably failed to do so. Since India joined FATF in 2011, it has been pushing hard to black list Pakistan through fake evidences as Pakistan’s addition to the grey list has plenty to do with the geopolitics in South Asia and Asia-Pacific region. Pakistan’s FATF woes are far more political than financial in nature. It is no more a secret now as Indian Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar claimed before a gathering of the ruling party leaders that it was “due to us [that] Pakistan is under the lens of FATF and it was kept in the grey list”.
Keeping in mind the aforementioned facts, what is it that makes India the darling of the West? The answer lies in plain sight as to balance China’s rising power in the region. For now, India’s policies have also provided a stable and profit-driven milieu to foreign investors. However, the recent Ladakh skirmishes have exposed to the world that India has fabricated the Chinese bogey, where, in reality, it is inherently weak when it comes to countering China. Hence, the West must cautiously formulate its India policies and avoid the temptation to treat India as capable of countering China’s global rise. It remains to be seen how far the U.S. and other major players will take India before it becomes unstoppable and a direct threat to the U.S. mainland.