By Sarfaraz Nasir
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, once famously defined democracy as ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’. He said this a couple of years after the British colonial power completely destroyed Delhi — the last bastion of Mughal Empire, during and after the great Revolt of 1857. The extensive loss of men and materials, including significant heritage sites, has been thoroughly documented by historians from various perspectives.
The current events unfolding in Gaza serve as a stark reminder of the forced migration that took place in Old Delhi, where the entire population was compelled to relocate and almost 40 percent of the prominent heritage buildings in Shahjahanbad were demolished.
The Zionists settlers bombed 1,700-year-old Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church and 1,400-year-old Al-Omari mosque in Gaza among many other cultural landmark buildings. These actions demonstrate that the Zionist project is not to just drive out the helpless Palestinians from their land but also erase the heritage of the Palestinians. Here is the hegemon’s moral clarity in play — Israel’s “right to exist” means total annihilation of Palestinians.
Nevertheless, by the second decade of the 21st century, it became clear that despite all the posturing about a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’, people lacked the ability to effectively regulate even their own media consumption.
Massive AI-powered computers have found that half of the population was lost in a sea of “post-truth” disinformation, while the other 50 percent is isolated in their own echo chambers, fuelled by empty rhetoric.
During a recent visit to Washington, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar evaded questions about prejudice against religious minorities in India by challenging “I defy you to show me discrimination”. Several media sources promptly fact-checked the Minister’s assertion, but the most compelling fact check came from a fellow BJP leader and Chief Minister of Assam, who explicitly stated that the BJP does not want Muslim votes. This claim and counterclaim could not make it to any TV studio for prime time debate.
The Crisis of credibility
So apparently, major media corporations have enlisted the services of ‘disinformation experts’. Their magical abilities are so incredible that, despite operating within a world of profit-driven, billionaire-controlled, advertiser-dependent, government-subsidized media, they somehow manage to expose ‘disinformation’ with absolutely no hint of bias.
Amidst all the never-ending chatter about ‘misinformation’, it is quite amusing how little attention is given to the glaring flaw of propaganda journalism. This flaw is what instantly exposes it, and it is all because propaganda journalism has completely different goals compared to rational journalism.
A report by Hindutva Watch, an independent research initiative based in Washington, examined 255 cases of hate speech in India and discovered that a significant majority (80%) of these hate speeches took place in states governed by the BJP. The ruling BJP and its affiliates, such as the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and Sakal Hindu Samaj, seem to have orchestrated most of the incidents, the report says.
The aims of rational journalism encompass honesty, accuracy, depth, and clarity. Objective journalism will, naturally, provide the Modi government’s justification for their silence on the violence in Manipur, alongside reliable and trustworthy sources that question this explanation. So it is important to note that this assertion of rational and honest journalism does not imply objectivity in journalism. Assessing the honesty, credibility, and authority of individuals and organisations is a matter of personal perspective.
Objective, and rational journalism necessitates that we, as conscientious readers and viewers, fulfil our roles by scrutinising the assertions and developing our own informed perspectives. We must approach the arguments of journalists, even those who claim to be honest and objective, with a critical mindset. It is essential that we conduct our own analysis and research to verify the information.
Blinded by propaganda
The objectives of propaganda journalism are different. The goal is to guide readers and viewers towards a specific conclusion. In this situation, the prioritisation of persuasion outweighs the importance of honesty, accuracy, and clarity. The propagandists will meticulously gather every minuscule detail that supports the desired conclusion. The objective is to provide a definitive, dichotomous perspective of the world, devoid of any ambiguity or uncertainty. The closed-circle is a logical construct that is crucial for a propagandist because winning is everything.
Sudhir Chaudhry, on Aaj Tak Hindi channel’s prime time show, was urging the Palestinians in Gaza, who have suffered severe violence, to relocate to Muslim majority OIC member countries. He was accusing the OIC member states of refusing to admit Palestinians as refugees. The thriving of rational discourse is simultaneously a menace and a defeat.
Due to this very reason, journalists-cum-activists, such as Sudhir Chaudhry are unable to challenge the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory. In their rational and professional journalism, they fail to explore the truth behind UN resolution 242 which categorically says “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 conflict.”
In his speech at the 33rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on October 10, 1978, Atal Bihari Bajpayee, who was serving as the External Affairs Minister at the time, expressed the need to reassert certain fundamental concepts that are crucial for the building of long-lasting peace.
The principles, according to him, include the prohibition of territorial acquisition through the use of force and the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Arab and Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. Additionally, he emphasised the inherent right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their own nation state and lastly, the right of all States in the Middle East to exist in security and peace within internationally recognised boundaries.
Despite the abundance of evidence, it is clear that propaganda catastrophe is not just a potential threat, but a reality. Despite the valiant efforts of a few courageous fact-checkers (AltNews, The Quint, Boomlive.in) besides fighting the fake news, advocate for truth and impartiality, the situation remains dire.
Amidst the eerie calm and apathy of our political leaders, there persists a resolute belief that the issue of fake news is a calculated scheme perpetuated by those with ulterior motives. I acknowledge that not everything presented in state-corporate media is necessarily biased in favour of the elite. However, it is important to recognise that these media outlets are indeed a component of a larger propaganda system, actively promoting the interests of those in power.
(The author is a Ph.D. scholar and a visiting faculty in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
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