A republic sans public, and a media sans ethics
The writer is a PhD scholar of Semiotics and Philosophy of Communication at Charles University Prague. She can be reached at shaziaanwer@yahoo.com
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Being semiotician, I am euphemistic. I can, therefore, just say that Indian media while monetising the threat of large-scale human disaster entered into the domain of insanity during the recent Indo-Pak skirmishes; and now one can only find 'media without media ethics' in Indian broadcasting platforms. Furthermore, after the Pahalgam incident, India is dangerously following a policy of 'republic without public'.
As if a scene from the medieval era, TV screens in India are showing demolition of houses of Indian Muslims, being justified under the tribal concept of 'collective punishment'. Sikhs are tagged anti-India. A regular army is being divided based on caste, clan and religion. Isn't India moving too fast on the path of implosion? Well, a country with 1.4 billion plus souls must not implode, or explode — after all many countries in the neighbourhood would be in for a spillover effect.
Another dangerous outcome of this crisis is the collapse of Indian diplomacy. Only two countries stood with New Delhi — Israel and Afghanistan — and both have extreme religious and political histories. This new triangle can be disastrous for the human race. All three follow the puritan school of thought. Two countries on two borders, not believing in human dignity and respect for international laws, dividing humans into groups based on religion, caste and linguistic background, and collaborating would surely not be in Pakistan's favour.
Just imagine BJP has labeled Indian Army Col Sufiya Qureshi as 'sister of terrorists', just because she announced India's demand for a ceasefire, even though she was speaking as Indian Army's spokesperson. Col Sufiya is has been part of the Indian Army since 1999, and her father and grandfather also served the Indian Army. Moreover, her husband, Col Tajuddin Bagewadi, is also in Indian military service. Detailing her family background is meant to emphasise that BJP can abuse anybody and risk their life if they are not a puritan Hindu.
The same is in Israel, where 100 per cent Army belongs to one religion, and the same rule lies in Afghanistan, where 100 per cent militant forces belong to one school of thought. India is a republic, but today, without the public, and is ruled by only one ideology - the Brahmin Ideology.
Now look at the Indian media where the majority of commentators were demanding a full-fledged attack on Pakistan to bring misery on millions of people. Can we call it sanity? Is it a video game where you can reset and restart the game once you destroy the enemy? Sitting in the TV studios, Indian commentators were yelling: "this is the time to attack Pakistan's nuclear weapons." India had been claiming since 1998 that Pakistan could not fight in the conventional domain and would opt for "nuclear". The situation, however, turned out to be otherwise.
International observers praised the Pakistani media calling it "credible" and "mature" while criticising the performance of Indian media as "sad and shameful". Some experts claimed that the ignorant Indian media is not even aware of the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) that could leave over a billion humans in ashes.
Whatever was shown on Indian TV channels was the worst kind of jingoism resulting from an extreme form of religious nationalism that has been injected over the years and that is extremely dangerous for the neighbouring countries. Religious nationalism is a mix of religious and national identities where religious affiliation is intertwined with national identity. This fusion in India is a powerful force that is shaping popular religiosity, influencing policy and impacting inter- and intra-state violence.
This fusion demands reshaping media narratives by injecting excessive glorification of own country (India), and leading to hostility towards others. This jingoism is surely isolating India in the international sphere because the Indian media has already targeted President Trump, Türkiye and Azerbaijan for their just position to stand with Pakistan. To remind our Indian friends, Arthashastra suggests that a ruler should be adaptable and choose the best course of action based on the situation instead of following their egoistic approach.
Let India taste its rotten recipe of foreign affairs?
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