I had, during a seminar held in Karachi more than a week ago on the role of media in South Asian politics, hailed the Indian media for its role in promoting peace in South Asia and defusing tensions between India and Pakistan in the past. However, I had also highlighted instances when the Indian media had behaved irresponsibly, on occasions such as the Samjhauta Express blasts about two years ago, when Pakistan was blamed for the bomb explosions as per Indian government’s stance, and the media of that country did not adopt an objective approach in trying to analyze the possible hands behind the attacks. It was discovered after some time that the Indian media was wrong and Indian army officers were behind the attack. Nevertheless tensions were high between the neighbours for some time after the Indian media’s false reporting and the peace process was derailed.
In one such instance mentioned by me where the Indian media had played a positive role and helped avert a major confrontation between the nuclear-armed foes was the tabooed Kargil affair. During the early hours and days of the conflict, the Pakistani media, thanks to a rogue general heading the armed forces, was reporting that Kashmiri freedom fighters were in fact holding Indian territory. However, the Indian media reported correctly, aided by the Indian surveillance, that it was in fact the Pakistani army that had occupied the key region. This led to an international pressure on Pakistan which eventually led to the pull out of the troops from the region. India, was tested on this occasion and had it not been for the international diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, she may have invaded Pakistan’s territory at other points or could have possibly carried out aerial strikes to cut off the supply route or destroy strategic areas of Pakistan’s infrastructure. Possessed with one of the highest number of fighter aircrafts as well as a standing army which is in the top five in terms of troop size, India certainly had the capacity to do so. However, it choose to stand in the comity of nations as a responsible state and also weakened the Kashmir cause by furthering the case of Pakistan being labeled as a terrorist and rogue state. Nevertheless, a possible confrontation was avoided through this process and for that the Indian media certainly stood out vis a vis its Pakistani counterpart.
However, just as wars can be averted through the power and leverage that the media enjoys today as arguably happened in the Kargil affair, the Mumbai blasts and the role of the media is a stark reminder to us all how wars can be imposed through the sheer pressure and power of media in preparing the people for a war that may not be as imminent as it may appear. The Iraq war and the role of the media of the United States is an example in this context. It is clear now, thanks to revelations by people close to the Bush administration as well as CIA intelligence officials, how false intelligence intercepts were provided to the media to state that Saddam Hussain’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as well to prove his alleged links to Al-Qaeda. The media of the United States by and large carried such stories without any verification on its part and the people of the United States were convinced that an Iraqi invasion was inevitable lest the United States security was threatened. It is clear now, post-2003 invasion, that the intelligence was false and even overwhelmingly manipulated to make out a case for an Iraqi invasion, which was a decision that Bush and his close circle had already made. Even when Colim Powell was making out a case for Iraqi invasion at the United Nations, the Bush administration knew fully well that the evidence and information he was relying upon for the U.S. case was deeply flawed. Today, the U.S. media is acknowledging its shortcomings but it is too late for corrections and the loss of lives cannot be compensated.
In a somewhat similar fashion, the Indian media behaved irresponsibly post-Mumbai blasts. However, going a step forward, unlike the U.S. example, it started blaming Pakistan much before the official Indian government started to move in this direction and thus possibly made the government’s task easier in this respect to cover its own shortcomings and blaming Pakistan in the conventional fashion. This was also the case in the Kabul embassy bombings as well as in the Samjhauta Express blasts and rather than helping the government probe into the matter and highlight the deficiencies in the Indian intelligence, the easy task was to blame Pakistan outright.
The aftermath has had huge consequences for the peace, stability and trade in the region. What was achieved in years of slow and meaningful negotiations and confidence building measures has been reversed with the snap of fingers. Relations between the two countries have reached their lowest ebb and each country is looking at the other with suspicious eyes and wary of the next move of the other. Relations aside, even talks of war are being openly heard on both sides of the border. Pakistan, on its part has made the right move in offering full cooperation and even asked for evidence against its nationals, if indeed they are involved in the incident. The initial blunder of agreeing to send the top intelligence official has been overcome thanks to a wise policy of building a national consensus over the matter and summoning an all parties conference in this regard.
India must not allow itself to be dominated by hawks as well as its media and allow the peace process to derail in this manner. It must act rationally and understand that statements and steps designed to appease the local media or capture domestic audience would achieve nothing but short term glory and perhaps some votes. The larger interest for the region is peace as well as cooperation to unveil the elements behind the attacks. Such elements neither serve India nor Pakistan. They are the enemies of humanity and for this reason alone can neither be termed as state or non-state actors but can definitely be classified as terrorists. For once, the Pakistani media has played a better role its Indian counterpart but it much desist from advocating and propagating too robust an approach which may move towards justification of these attacks as certainly there can be no justification for such cowardly, barbaric and inhumane attacks. Pakistan is no Iraq and India must understand that. As a nuclear state, we must seek co-existence and avenues for cooperation in incidents such as these rather than seek to pressurize or dominate the other. Since the consequences of nuclear fallout are catastrophic, even talks about war should be out of the question.
I had also suggested during the seminar that Pakistan, being a smaller country having limited conventional capability, must not have announced a No First Use Nuclear Policy in the way that President Zardari did during his address to the Indian people via Hindustan Times. This policy would, as many experts agree, nullify the deterrent effect that we hold against India, which is far ahead in conventional means and it is for times like these that we must never surrender that advantage. Otherwise, the whole point of conducting the nuclear tests on 28th May 1998 becomes an absurdity.
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