ALI SUKHANVER

It was really a marvelous addition to my knowledge that sometimes the dead also attend conferences and participate in discussions; this horrible reality was revealed upon me when I was going through a report of the EU DisinfoLab. This Brussels-based NGO is an organization working to combat disinformation against the European Union. It claims on its webpage that it is an independent non-profit organization and it focuses on tackling sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the EU, its member states and core institutions. The recently issued report is on the Indian Chronicles. Commenting on the report, the Aljazeera said that it has unearthed a 15-year-old operation run by an Indian entity that used hundreds of fake media outlets and the identity of a dead professor to target Pakistan.

The EU DisinfoLab said in its investigation-report, Over the last months, we took a deeper dive, with a specific focus on the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP). We soon realized that this US-based NGO – accredited to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – had become inactive in the late 1970s before being resurrected in 2005. Shockingly, we discovered that the organization had not only been revived, its former Chairman and grandfather of international law in the US”, Louis B. Sohn who passed away in 2006, seemingly attended a UN Human Rights Council meeting in 2007 and participated in an event organized by Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan” in Washington D.C. in 2011.” The report pointed out that India has been engaged in such type of activities for the last fifteen years. For accomplishment of her heinous plans India has not only got direct control of more than 10 NGOs accredited to the UN Human Rights Council but also established more than 750 fake media outlets in 119 countries along with getting registration of more than 550 website domain names. And the most criminal action performed is that of impersonation of EU institutions and of resurrection of the dead people, media and NGOs. This still ongoing operation started in 2005 and since then is being led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by an Indian news agency Asian News International commonly known as the ANI; says the report. From the day one, the main targets of this operation are Pakistan and China though other nations having conflicting relations with India have also not been spared. The sole purpose has ever been to promote anti-Pakistan and anti-Chinese feelings with the help of disinformation tools and ultimately to get more support from international institutions such as the UN and the EU.

The government of India has ever been a staunch follower of the fake-news tradition. On 10^th March 2020, the Aljazeera said commenting on increasing number of Covid-19 cases, India‘s battle against the corona-virus has many obstacles – large crowds, a stretched health system and inadequate infrastructure but beyond these, familiar foes are rearing their heads: misinformation and fake news. Through its vast social media networks, a wave of inaccuracy is spreading on corona-virus. From offering unverified home remedies to tackle the virus, to floating fake advisories asking people to avoid foods such as ice cream and chicken and sharing conspiracy theories, Indians’ phones are being flooded with misinformation.” The situation became so pathetic that Mr.Modi had to make an appeal to the citizens, asking them to not heed to ‘rumours’ surrounding COVID-19. But before the citizens could listen to the appeal of Mr. Modi the country’s stock exchange had plunged to its lowest level since 2010; certainly as the result of fear of the disease; the fear born out of fake news and rumors.

The same fake-news tradition was followed by the Indian ‘sarkar’ on 29^th September 2019 when it claimed that it had made surgical strikes deep into Pakistan Administered area of Azad Kashmir. The BBC sent its reporters to visit the area where all this ‘so-called’ surgical strikes were claimed to have taken place. The reporters said in their report, Despite the use of the term ‘surgical strikes’ the Indians definitely did not airdrop commandos to hit ‘launching pads of militants’ inside Pakistani-held territory, or conduct ground assaults deep into the Pakistan-administered side. A similar advance by the Indians in the Dudhnial area of Neelum valley further north was beaten back by the Pakistanis. Indian troops could not have hit a target and returned alive as the climb required was too steep.” The reporters said that they could not get any confirmation of the Indian media reports that Lashkar-e-Taiba camps in the Khairati Bagh village of Leepa valley and the western end of Dudhnial village in Neelum valley had been hit on 29 September. But unfortunately, during all those days, the Indian media and Mr. Modi both had been drumming louder and louder the song of India’s successful surgical strikes on Pakistan.

The DisinfoLab says India has been spreading fake-news with the help of different bogus media outlets for the last fifteen years but the fact of the matter is that India is playing this childish game for the last 73 years. Moreover its targets are not only Pakistan, China or EU; almost all it neighboring countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar are its targets. So a friendly suggestion for the EU is that it must not feel lonely. However, after the report of the EU DisinfoLab, the world would no doubt look towards the countries which have since long been dealing, treating, supporting, honoring and favoring India on the basis of her claim of being the Largest Democracy. Certainly, the report of the EU DisinfoLab gives us a lot of food for thought.