Daily Times

According to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organisation of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), all that is south of Himalayas and north of Indian Ocean is “Bharat.” The BJP general-secretary and member of the national executive of RSS, Ram Madhav, said in an interview to Al-Jazeera that they would like to see Pakistan and Bangladesh united with India. Right from partition, India has not accepted the existence of Pakistan. All its policies are Pakistan-centric and always busy in hatching conspiracies to damage/destabilise Pakistan. India was involved with Pakistan in three wars, followed by wars at Siachen and Kargil. India is continuously violating ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked firing and shelling civil population along the Line of Control (LOC). The aim is to divert the attention of the world community from Indian Occupied Kashmir and fix Pakistan not only from the eastern side but also the west through its proxies while using Afghan soil. Former US Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel, confirmed India’s role in using Afghan soil for terrorist activities inside Pakistan. Today, Indian Occupied Kashmir is locked down since August 5. The entire valley of about eight million people has been put on house arrest. The Amnesty International has accused the Indian government of committing human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir as the occupation forces are involved in extrajudicial killings. This year, on February 26, 2019, twelve Mirage 2000 H of the Indian Air Force crossed LOC and once challenged by PAF, dropped payload in haste and fled. Immediately, the Indian media claimed that the IAF targeted a so-called militant camp in Balakot but actually, the bombs were dropped in a forest. What happened on February 27 is now a dark chapter of IAF wherein two of their MIGs were shot down by PAF while Wing Commander Abhi Nandan was arrested. He was later released as a goodwill gesture. In an article by Lieutenant General (retired) H S Panag, Indian army wrote that the 90-hours conflict with Pakistan ended in defeat for India. India has simultaneously subjected Pakistan to hybrid and fifth-generation warfare and is using all possible options to damage Pakistan by exploiting its vulnerabilities. The hybrid warfare is a military strategy that employs political, conventional, irregular and cyber warfare to destabilise and damage a country. The vulnerabilities could be related to defence, politics, society, economy and diplomacy.

Indians are following the philosophies of Chanakya, the political strategist and thinker called the Indian Machiavelli. He advocated attacking the enemy at his weak points (vulnerabilities) instead of engaging him at his strongholds. Today, Pakistan is confronted with this type of warfare launched by its enemies. Recently, a European non-governmental organisation has uncovered a network of 265 fake news outlets in more than 65 countries, which is managed by an Indian network to influence the European Union and the UN with content critical of Pakistan.

One such website eptoday.com is a self-proclaimed magazine for the European Union in Brussels. It reported its content was drawn/republished from the US-funded Voice of America and Russia Today. The website posted a large number of articles and opinion pieces related to the minorities in Pakistan. According to European Union Disinfo Lab, it is “sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the European Union, its member states, core institutions and core values.” According to EU Disinfo Lab, it began to study the website eptoday.com, which called a monthly news magazine for the European parliament, “we unexpectedly found a large number of articles and op-ed related to minorities in Pakistan as well as India related material.”

The hybrid warfare is a military strategy that employs political, conventional, irregular and cyber warfare to destabilise and damage a country

The eptoday was managed by Indian stakeholders with ties to a large network of thinktanks, NGOs and companies from Srivastava group. They also found that internet protocol address (IP) of Srivastava group is also home to on-line media “New Delhi Times” and the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (IINS), which are all based at the same address in New Delhi. This fake operation aimed to influence international institutions and European elected representative with coverage of specific events and demonstration, provide NGO with useful press material and reinforce their credibility. Most importantly the recent visit of 27 members of the European Parliament to Kashmir and meeting with Modi was also organised by the interest group running a global network of fake news for India. An online magazine set up by the same group in Geneva, Timesofgeneva.com, which is approaching 35 years, carried the same type of content as eptoday criticising Pakistan’s role in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Anti-Pakistan content is re-published from the described network, including eptoday, 4 News Agency, Times of Geneva and New Delhi Time. India is also using social media, websites, blogs, Facebook pages and Whatsapp groups to spread anti-Pakistan false stories and narratives. There is growing negative propaganda on social media against Pakistan and armed forces. At the same time, India also attempted to politicise the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) proceedings with its malicious campaigns. In February 2018, India also called for blacklisting Pakistan during the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) meeting. India submitted a separate dossier against Pakistan out of the way. India’s Financial Intelligence Unit’s director-general is the co-chairman of the joint group as India was to co-chair the Asia Pacific Joint Group. In March 2019, Former finance minister Asad Umar asked the FATF to remove India as the co-chair of the Asia Pacific’s Joint Group. This group is reviewing Pakistan’s progress on the implementation of the FATF action plan. In June 2018, the FATF placed Pakistan on the grey list and in October 2019, the FATF decided to not place Pakistan in the blacklist for now. Pakistan has been asked to improve further in four months. According to an article in The New York Times by Timothy Synder, Hitler was considered the pioneer of fake news. Hitler mentioned this in his book, “Mein Kampf,” “The correct use of propaganda is true art.”

The concept of fake news was introduced by Hitler and Nazis as a slogan, which they repeated again and again to discredit reporters. “Lugenpresse” means “fake news.”

RSS leaders were/are great admirers of Hitler and sought inspiration from Nazi Germans. The influence of Nazism is evident from the fact that Hitler’s book is famous across India. The BJP-led government portrays Hitler as a hero and glorifies fascism. India is involved in a constant struggle to pressurise Pakistan through the use of media, cyber and hybrid warfare as well as diplomacy to isolate Pakistan internationally. Despite attacks from all sides, Pakistan cannot be defeated. The father of the nation had rightly said that there was no power on earth, which can undo Pakistan.

The writer is a retired brigadier and freelance columnist