War hysteria
First things first. Full marks to the person who thought of giving the name Operation Sindoor to the military assault launched on Pakistan by India to destroy its terrorist camps, mainly in Jammu and Kashmir. This was our government and armed forces’ response to the brutal killing of innocent tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. And that too after shamefully determining their religion. Sindoor evokes the agony and grief, as also the anger of the women whose husbands were murdered in cold blood as they watched on helplessly. Every memory of that horrendous act of terror sends a chill down the spine of every Indian.
As Pakistan responded to India’s military operations and missiles hit our border areas, forcing the closure of many Indian airports, there was fear and chaos in these parts. But calm prevailed when we we were first told by American President Donald Trump that thanks to US intervention and night-long talks, a ceasefire had been agreed upon. We don’t really know what actually happened and there have been frenzied speculations ranging from Pakistan’s nuclear facilities being hit in the Indian attack to promises of trade and sanction of a hefty IMF loan compelling Pakistan to agree to a ceasefire. In war times governments do not divulge everything; that is the nature of the beast.
Sane people on both sides welcomed the cessation of hostilities, while the fanatics and warmongers took to various social media platforms to berate the Indian government for accepting a ceasefire, “before breaking Pakistan into pieces. Didn’t Indira Gandhi do that,” they brayed. The belligerent jingoists who spewed such nonsense have no clue about the reality today and terrible cost of war in a nuclear era, where sheer inventory of weapons doesn’t count. While loss of military equipment, however sophisticated or expensive, can be replaced, can we bring back a single soldier who is killed in combat? It is easy for those, whose lives are not at stake, to raise cries of war from TV channels or on the social media.
Even more terrible and shameful to watch was the warmongering and drum-beating on most television channels on both sides. Since I watched only some of our channels, I was horrified by the sheer stupidity, screaming, hysteria, chest thumping and worse that played out in these studios. Yet another dirge on the kind and quality of journalism that we knew once upon a time. The Economist called it “Indian TV channels’ outrageous coverage of the fighting. They achieved the astonishing feat of making social media appear sane.” I quickly switched to an OTT platform, being afraid that those baying for blood might actually spill some right there in the studio. Anybody who talked some sense or advocated restraint was shouted down and bullied by the hyper anchor, who seemed to be on steroids. Providing entertainment on the sidelines were a few witty tweets with short clips, with one of them saying: ‘This is not a comedy show, this is one of our premier news channels!’ Another stand-up comedian said: “The other day I watched xxx channel on mute and I was like: This is still too loud. I then searched for a button on the remote to see whether one of them could reduce the energy of that crazy person!”
Once the war hysteria dies down, perhaps our TV channels will consider sending some of their most volatile, mentally unstable anchors back to journalism schools.
Now that would be a service to the nation.
Rasheeda Bhagat
