THE ROLE OF INDIAN MEDIA IN PROXY WAR AND TERRORISM

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS

The Indian media prides itself in galvanizing the nation in times of war with Pakistan and China with their print reportage and visual coverage. However, when it comes to covering Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India, the record of the Indian media is not all that promising and creditable.

This criticism applies more to the Indian TV media and less to the Indian print media. The Indian print media has the advantage of time in order to present a relatively more balanced reportage, which crystallizes in the time span between terrorist incidents and their reportage in print.

The Indian TV media laboring under the pressure of 24X7 competitive live coverage of terrorist incidents, absence of instant availability of Government releases and briefings on terrorism incidents and the prevailing confusion and fog on the developing situation tend to indulge in speculative reporting.

In the above process, national security considerations are lost and the Indian TV media ends up as an unwilling tool of exploitation of the Pakistani terrorist organizations disinformation strategies.

The Indian media, both print and TV, seem to be confused when it comes to covering Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India. This confusion becomes further confounded as the Indian media wrestles with itself as to what should be “The Role of the Indian Media in Proxy War and Terrorism”. Should it be “The Role of the Indian Media in Proxy War and Terrorism” or should the role of the Indian media be “The Role of the Indian Media Against Proxy War and Terrorism.”

Since India is being subjected to Proxy War and Terrorism by Pakistan for well over 20 years now, the Indian media should rightfully perceive its role as “The Role of the Indian Media Against Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism Against India.

The Indian media would additionally be able to add more clarity and objectivity to its reportage and visual coverage when it recognizes the ground reality that Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India is a state-sponsored product of the Pakistani Government, the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies and their surrogate Jihadi terrorist organizations adding the Islamic tinge.

Targeting these above Pakistani entities, the Indian media in its print and TV coverage would not only be serving India’s national security interests but also be assisting the cause of democracy aspirations of the Pakistani people.

The Indian media also needs to dispel from its mind that in espousing a vacillating Indian Governments “soft approaches” in its counter- terrorism approaches, war hysteria and jingoism is being generated.

In the coverage of Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India the two major failings of the India media, can be recounted as under:

Not adding “Context to Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism Against India"
Failing to “Frame Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorist Incidents in their Correct Perspective.
My presentation today would attempt to address these two major issues besides some others generally on the role of media in proxy war and terrorism.

The issues that would be covered by me today are:

The Constitution of India, Press Freedom and National Security
Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism: The “Context” that Indian Media should Add in its Reportage
Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism: “Framing” Pakistan’s Terrorism in the Correct Perspectives
Proxy War and Terrorism: Comparative analysis of Terrorists Exploitation of Media and India’s Expectations from the Indian Media
THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, PRESS FREEDOM AND NATIONAL SECURITY

The Constitution of India, surprisingly, does not mention “freedom of the Press” specifically in the Chapter on Fundamental Rights. Dr. Ambedkar however clarified later that it was not necessary to stipulate it specifically as it is implicit in the guarantees of Freedom of Speech and Expression in Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution.

Notably, censorship is not covered in any provisions of the Indian Constitution.

However under the Constitution, during an emergency, Fundamental Rights including Freedom of Expression and Speech stand suspended. In Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India, the freedom of the Press can be restricted for reasons of sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state and preserving democracy, besides some other contingencies.

Having said that, I would like to stress to the Indian media in their role while covering Proxy War and Terrorism that:

With freedom of Press, comes responsibility and accountability
In a Proxy War and Terrorism environment National Security imperatives and requirements should override any misguided journalistic impulses for scoops and sensation.
Proxy War and Terrorism participants indulge in acts of war against the Indian State and its Constitution. Such individuals cannot seek refuge in the Indian Constitution for Human Rights protection and legal processes guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
In light of the above, in Proxy War and Terrorism situations, the Indian media is expected to exercise a large degree of self-restraint.

PAKISTAN’S PROXY WAR AND TERRORISM: THE “CONTEXT” THAT INDIAN MEDIA SHOULD ADD IN ITS REPORTAGE

India’s embattled security environment, both in terms of external security and internal security results from the decades of proxy war and terrorism that Pakistan has launched against it.

Proxy war and Terrorism have emerged as the state instruments of Pakistan and the main policy tools of the Pakistan Army in its asymmetric warfare against India. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal has additionally emboldened it to employ Proxy war and Terrorism more boldly against India.

Frustrated that Pakistan’s policy of bleeding India with a “thousand cuts” had not been successful, Pakistan’s Terrorism Warfare is no longer confined to Jammu and Kashmir, but now encompasses the main heartland of India from Guwahati to Mumbai and from Delhi to Bangalore.

India as a whole is now in the cross-hairs of Pakistan’s perfidious Proxy War and Terrorism. Unlike the India-Pakistan wars of the past, Pakistan’s Terrorism War against India is no longer confined to Western border-states. Every Indian state is now a battlefield for Pakistan’s Terrorism War.

India and its citizens across the board must become alive to this dangerous reality.

Mumbai 9/11, and this term is deliberately used by me as opposed to 26/11, should have become a defining moment for India’s combating Pakistan’s Terrorism War, like 9/11 was for the United States.

Mumbai 9/11 was Pakistan’s open declaration of war against India, when a handful of Pakistani terrorists trained by Pakistan’s Special Forces Group held the majesty of the Indian State to ransom for three days in the full glare of national and international media.

The United States response to 9/11 was the US military intervention in Afghanistan to destroy the Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist infrastructure there. India’s response has been appeasement of Pakistan.

India’s democratic traditions and liberal institutions have however not instilled in the Indian political leadership, unlike other democracies the will to use power to liquidate threats to India’s security. It is this national weakness of India that emboldens Pakistan’s incessant Proxy War and Terrorism against India. This contextual weakness needs to be highlighted incessantly by the Indian media.

India’s embattled security environment and the failure or reluctance to come to grips with Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism places an Indian national call on the Indian media to review and redefine its role in covering and combating Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India. It is this context that the Indian media needs to keep uppermost in its mind while covering Pakistan’s terrorism.

The Indian media, despite many short comings, is assessed by me, as a strong and valuable “pillar of state of the Indian Republic. Its scrutiny and oversight of India’s political leadership and policy has been an effective “check and balance” to ensure that India’s democracy is not endangered.

Imbued with the same spirit, the Indian media, both print and visual, should now look upon themselves as one more weapon of the Indian Republic in combating Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism which endangers India’s national security.

While the Indian Army battles the Pakistan menace with their weapons, the Indian media should battle Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism with the power of their pens and the impact of TV visuals.

PAKISTAN’S PROXY WAR AND TERRORISM “FRAMING” PAKISTAN’S TERRORISM IN THE CORRECT PERSPECTIVE

The role of the Indian media in covering the four major India-Pakistan Wars has been good. With each successive war there was a qualitative improvement in Indian Media’s performance.

The Kargil War of 1999 was for the first time in India covered extensively by the TV visual media and created impact on the Indian public mind considerably.

However, in the coverage of Proxy War and Terrorism which has abounded more frequently since 2004, there is much to be desired from the Indian media in terms of their coverage and the desired impact that they should have normally been expected to create.

Very briefly, the Indian TV media during the last five years seemed to err less on the side of national security imperatives and more erring towards “humanizing” the terrorists, their cause and in J & K falling prey to the disinformation propaganda campaign of the pro-Pakistan separatists against India.

Possibly, this arises from the Indian media’s lack of grasp of the main and true intents of Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India. Unless this is understood and recognized by the Indian media, and especially the visual media, they would be handicapped in playing an effective role in the coverage of Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism.

Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against Indian needs to be framed by the Indian media in the following perspectives:

Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism is no longer confined to Jammu & Kashmir aimed at the secession of the State from India.
Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India is no longer militancy or terrorist activities, or insurgency arising from indigenous root causes.
Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India is a full-fledged “War Against India” by applying all the instruments of asymmetric warfare against India by a combined and coordinated use of militancy, terrorism, insurgency and possibly tomorrow use of nuclear terrorism.
Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism is no longer targeted at Indian security forces. Today, it targets the Indian Republic as a whole. It targets innocent civilian population and India’s economic, financial, scientific and other strengths including its social fabric.
The root causes of Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India, and which transcend any other root causes, is Pakistan’s unrelenting hostility towards India. India is Pakistan’s “Enemy No.1”. Pakistan could not cut down India to size in four wars. It now intends to down-size India strategically by asymmetric warfare which is akin to unleashing termites to eat into the very entrails of the Indian Republic.
The Indian media therefore has to breakout of the fixation that media coverage needs to be confined or viewed through the myopic lens of militancy and terrorism as some law and order problem. Further, that while covering these Pakistan threats, root causes have to be discerned and highlighted. Root causes should be explored by the Indian media in their political coverage and not of proxy war and terrorism.

India’s political leadership and its polity have not been able to rise up to meet this Pakistan challenge. Their political will to use power is conspicuously missing.

India’s flawed counter-terrorism approaches in neutralizing the Pakistani threat to India arises from the following causes and the Indian media should frame these perspectives in their reportage:

India’s divided polity which politicizes both national security and terrorism challenges.
Minority vote bank politics of the ruling party and its allies, leading to scrapping to anti-terrorism laws.
India’s judicial system which has not been restructured for speedy and summary trials and punishment of those who wage war against the Indian Republic.
The Indian media’s role in Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism therefore does not arise only as a “Force Multiplier” of the Indian Army and police organizations as they battle Pakistan’s continuing and incessant threats against India. More importantly Indian media’s role in Proxy War and Terrorism extends to fire “Tear Gas” at India’s political leaders so that they blink their eyes and see through the realities of Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism – stop them form politicizing such threats and prod them into effective counter-measures.

PROXY WAR AND TERRORISM: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TERRORISTS EXPLOITATION OF MEDIA AND INDIA'S EXPECTATIONS FROM THE MEDIA

At the outset of the analysis, one would like to quote excerpts from a US Congressional Report dealing with this subject, as they encapsulate the essence of the problems at issue, and these are:

“Terrorists, governments and the media see the functions, roles and responsibilities of the media covering terrorist events from differing and opposing perspectives.”
“Such perceptions drive respective behavior during terrorist incidents- often resulting in tactical and strategic gains or losses, to the terrorist operations and the overall terrorist cause.”
“The challenge to the Government and the press community is to understand the dynamics of terrorist enterprise and develop policy options to serve government, media and societal interests.”
The intents and dynamics of Pakistan’s Proxy War and terrorism against India stand amplified for the Indian media in the preceding discussion.

However, before the comparative analysis, one would like to quote some excerpts of studies made on the subject. These are from various sources and revealing in their content.

“Mainstream media shies away from the main actors in Terrorism and Proxy War- the victims of terrorism and the security forces who have to combat the invisible enemy targeting innocent civilians. Media needs to move beyond spin, ask questions because we don’t have all the answers and evaluate what we are told.”
“We must wake up to the harsh reality of the fact that low-intensity conflict or Proxy War has been unleashed against us by way of information aggression. Forces hostile to India have tended to occupy the vacuum created by the inadequate reach of Indian media.”
“Terrorists alter the uneven balance of power through the media metaphor which amplifies their horrific acts and demands with the publicity terrorists would never buy or afford.”
“What democracies cannot afford is to let the freedom of the Press continue to serve the forces that seek to undermine them.”
“It is an inexorable, if abhorrent axiom, that violent acts like terrorism increase print media readership and TV ratings thus terrorists and journalists are involved in an intricate. Symbiotic dance that professionally benefits both, despite protestations to the contrary.”
“Like it not, the media is still an integral, unfortunate and unavoidable part of achieving the terrorists aims and therefore be as judicious and responsible as possible in reporting.”
These excerpts make the follow-up task of comparative analysis that much simpler.

Media Exploitation By The Terrorists

The terrorist commit violent act looking to gain three universal objectives which they assess the media coverage facilitates. These are (1) Capture national and international attention (2) Gain recognition of their cause, and (3) Gaining recognition, the terrorists hope that with the attendant media publicity, some degree of legitimacy would accrue.

Media exploitation by the terrorists focus on the following expectations (1) Media will provide publicity of their deeds and cause (2) In the process, media coverage would facilitate spread of fear and amplify panic (3) Show up the impotence of the Government and security forces to combat Proxy War and Terrorism (4) Exploit media as a tool for their coordinated and calibrated disinformation strategies.

In case of the Indian media, Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and their Proxy War and Terrorism surrogates exploit the liberalist impulses and spin approaches for Human Right violations by engineering situations in which security forces would be forced to act firmly.

Proxy War and terrorism in India thrives on the “oxygen of publicity” provided by the Indian media.

Indian Media’s Role in Proxy War and Terrorism: The National Expectations

Combating Proxy War and terrorism is a challenging task for the security forces of the Indian Republic. The enemy is invisible, Pakistan has local sleeper cells and modules within India and the Indian security forces have to battle this menace with one hand tied politically.

In such an environment, the Indian media needs to exhibit “UNDERSTANDING, RESTRAINT, COOPERATION AND LOYALTY” and by thus doing act as a “Force Multiplier” for India's security forces. The Indian media should guard against becoming an unwitting “force Multiplier” for Pakistani Proxy War and Terrorism machine.

More specifically, the Indian media’s expected role should be to (1) Deny the terrorists a media platform for publicity (2) Avoid glamorizing terrorists and terrorism incidents (3) Project terrorists as “war criminals” and their terrorist act as Acts of War against India (4) Prevent use of media as a disinformation tool of terrorists strategy (5) Media should boost the morale of the security forces and so also their public image (6) Media should restrain themselves form building pressures on the Government and security forces for instant action or pressures to yield-in to terrorists demands especially in hostage situations

Time does not permit derailed case studies of Indian media’s role in coverage of the Proxy War and Terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir or Mumbai 9/11. However the analysis briefly outlined above would enable the Indian media to redefine its role in Proxy War and Terrorism that Pakistan continues to indulge against India.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism is not a passing phenomenon. These will continue as Pakistan’s instruments of state policy against India fuelled by Pakistan’s obsessive fixation of down-sizing India.

Peace dialogues and Confidence Building Measures are political expedients for both sides. These cannot emerge as India's weapons to neutralize or lessen Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism against India.

In the absence of visionary Indian political leadership imbued with strategic vision and conditioned in ‘strategic culture’ mindsets, to combat purposefully Pakistan’s Proxy War and Terrorism Against India, the mantle falls on the Indian media to “Add Context” to Pakistan’s perfidious repeated terrorist attacks on India and so also to “Frame Pakistan’s Terrorist Attack Against India in the Correct Perspectives”. By doing so the Indian media could assist in galvanizing the Indian people to vociferously demand strong counter-terrorism policies against Pakistan’s calibrated and coordinated Proxy War and Terrorism against India.