In a startling disclosure, EU-based non-governmental organisation EU DisinfoLab revealed an India-sponsored fake, dis-informational network of 265 fake media outlets in 65 countries, including US, Canada, Brussels, and Geneva. The network is run by Srivastava Group of India. It lists New Delhi Times as one of its assets, and also runs a think tank called International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies. The Institute paid for the travel and accommodation of an unofficial far-right delegation of 23 European Union parliamentarians to Srinagar on October 30, 2013. The trip was arranged by Indian –intelligence surrogate Madi Sharma who posed as a self-styled “international business broker”. The delegation’s shikara (boat) ride in Kashmir Lake (dal) pictured Kashmir as a heaven in serene peace. Some members however smelt a rat and abandoned the free joy ride.

After connecting the dots, the disinformation watchdog found that The Times of Geneva Online, EP (European parliament) Today and “4newsagency.com” had shady links to a large network of think tanks, Non-Governmental Organisations, and fake news websites in over 65 countries. The network worked day in and day to create a `mirage’ of anti-Pakistan perceptions by influencing world’s political leaders, international institutions, as well as gullible ordinary folk alike.

Already EP Today has apologised for aping Russia Today’s content and promised to desist from doing so in future. India used fake websites; together with India’s financial relations (Rafale and AS-400 deals, and trade) with world to isolate Pakistan. The fake website described themselves as “independent not-for-profit news cooperatives’ headquartered in Switzerland”.

It appears India has meticulously implemented Hitler’s propaganda theorems: `The bigger the lie, the better the results. The success of any propaganda campaign ultimately depends on the propagandist’s down-to-earth understanding of the “primitive sentiments of the popular masses”. Mein Kampf (pp. 179-180). According to New York Times dated April 29, 2019, the only antidote to fake information is public awareness like hand-washing techniques during health crisis.

`Isolation’ not an overnight exploit: India doetailed its disinformation policy with structural reforms in army and intelligence set-up to achieve its objective of isolating Pakistan. Sanjiv Tripathi, the longest serving Research and Analysis chief said `the entire J&K, including PoK, is part of India’. He stressed, `R&AW should carry out psychological operations … through seminars, articles and discussions.” Tripathi believed `Pakistan’s step-motherly treatment of its minorities, particularly the Pashtuns, Sindhis, Baluchis and Baltis, offers excellent ground for hosting Indian agents. However, very little is being done, except in PoK’ .Lo! India under prime minister Narendar Modi modified Indian maps to include Pakistani, Nepalese and Chinese

Territories into India

RAW was restructured to play a more effective role in curbing centrifugal movements (freedom movements in Kashmir, North East, and Naxalbari footholds). All security agencies and advisers now report to new security czar, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. He is aided by four deputies (earlier there was only one). The deputies include former spymasters, Rajinder Khanna, R.N. Ravi, and Pankaj Saran, besides a military adviser (Lt Gen V.G. Khandare).

India’s Strategic Policy Group, idle since Manmohan Singh’s second term, has been revived (to create troubles in Sindh, Balochistan, and KPK). NSA’s head has replaced hitherto head, the cabinet secretary. He will also head the newly set up Defence Planning Committee and the four-member National Security Advisory Board (Lt Gen S.L. Narasimhan, a China expert, former RAW hand, A.B. Mathur, and Bimal Patel, an academic). A new post of national cyber security coordinator was created under Computer Emergency Response Team head Gulshan Rai (who reports to the prime minister). K. Ilango, who manipulated Sri Lanka elections in 2015 has been reactivated.

Cyber- and psy-war slots: Indian army chief said, `A jawan costs the army Rs 6-8 lakh a year, compared to an officer who earns Rs 20-22 lakh annually. Simply put, cutting down four or five officers will help save a crore’. He indicated (October 2, 2018) `army could cut over one lakh troops in the next few years and some of them could be assigned new roles’ (cyber and psy-war). Not only state – but also non-state actors are engaged in so-called fifth-generation warfare.

Influence of fake news in elections: In the lead-up to the elections, the Indian government summoned the top executives of Facebook and Twitter to discuss the crisis of coordinated misinformation, fake news and political bias on their platforms. In March, Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s global vice president for public policy, was called to appear before a committee of 31 members of the Indian Parliament, who were mostly from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to discuss “safeguarding citizens’ rights on social/online news media platforms.”

The hearing was a hoax as B.J.P. was the chief beneficiary of divisive content that reaches millions because of the way social media algorithms, especially Facebook, amplify “engaging” articles. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are too timid to tackle the problem head-on for fear of offending politicos. A large proportion of messages shared on social networks in India are not verifiable. Facebook India has a small 11- to 22-member fact-checking team for content related to Indian elections.

India also has a vast publicly funded Press Information Bureau, and a television and radio network, to monitor, track and debunk fake news. They are good for nothing being under governmental control.

Disinformation or fifth-generation war in history: ‘Disinformation’ (Russian deziinformatzia) is a concept which finds mention in Sun Tzu’s Ping Fa (Principles of War). Even before Sun Tzu, Kautliya in Arthashastra supported disinformation as a civil and military warfare tool within his concept of koota yuddha (unprincipled warfare as distinguished from dharma yuddha, righteous warfare).

Tzu’s and Kautliya’s principles were used not only in the World War II but also in the Cold War period (to hoodwink own and foreign people). Richard Deacon says, ‘Truth twisting…unless it is conducted with caution and great attention to detail, it will inevitably fail, if practiced too often… It is not the deliberate lie which we have to fear (something propaganda), but the half-truth, the embellished truth and the truth dressed up to appear a something quite different’ (The Truth Twisters, London, Macdonald & Company (Publishers) Limited, 1986/1987, p. 8). He gives several example of disinformation including subliminal disinformation by which the truth can be twisted so that the distortion is unconsciously absorbed something which both television and radio commentators have subtly perfected’ (Ibid., p. 9). In USA, Creel Committee, through false anti-German propaganda turned pacifist Americans against Germans.

Now, technology is being used as a complement to media propaganda. Some trolls, recruited by Russian intelligence (GRU), were punished in USA, They provided goldmine of information about Russian tactics. Russian hackers (including Kevin Mitnick) hacked servers, including allegedly Hillary Clinton’s private server (“DC Leaks” and “Guccifer 2.0). They disseminated false information though fake trolls and accounts. They polarized American public opinion in Trump’s favour. A billionaire Russian businessman and Putin associate established a network of troll factories to develop fake news articles and commentary to build anti-Democrat public opinion.

A leading Russian troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, recruited young Americans between ages 18 to 20 years for creating fake social media accounts and blogs, incendiary comments and fake posts on political forums.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was hoodwinked into unwittingly handing over more than 50,000 emails to the Russians. Information warfare and cyber warfare were used as political tools to advance the interests of people in Russia. Kudos to India for glitching NADRA result transmission system and portraying Pakistan’s `election’ as a blatant `selection’. Election Commission and NADRA made contradictory statements about delay in result announcement. Malicious articles by Bruce Riedel, and others tried to sully Army image though it had done a commendable job.

On page 144 of his autobiography Mein Kampf(My struggle), Hitler applauds his adversaries for successful propaganda. He lambast Germans `who thought that the work of propaganda could be entrusted to the first ass that came along, braying of his own special talents, and they had no conception of the fact that propaganda demands the most skilled brains that can be found’. Hitler’s propaganda theorems are quoted in American political-science text-books.

USA’s experience: `information and its influence upon masses is a well-known fact. Even in the pre-internet age, the propaganda, disinformation, psychotronics(pamphlets, handbills, photos, etc) was used in World Wars, and thereafter. Information power, as funneled by computer explosion and telecommunications, is stronger than military, economic, social and political power. An information revolution is already underway with increase in the world’s population of Internet users. Recall flare-up of Arab Spring. Pakistan, too, has established an information corps.

The USA realised true potency of information warfare during operations in Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and, above all in, Somalia. US General Leigh Armistead says, “General Aideed of Somalia manipulated the media to keep the militarily superior U.S. forces off-balance throughout most of the operations during 1993. In fact, with the use of $ 600 video camera, Aideed changed forever U.S. foreign policy in the region. It was Aideed a true information warrior, whose actions in Somalia, perhaps more than any other U.S. military operation, showed the innate power of information…By no means is Somalia on par with the United States in a comparison of power of any kind. Yet because Aideed effectively used the mass media to his advantage, he in fact controlled the flow of events’. Since that time, IO has evolved to serve as a model for future…international relations” . I quote from Information Operations: Warfare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power, Brassey’s, Inc., 2004, p. 16). This textbook, taught at US military academies, was produced in conjunction with the [US] Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security Agency, Washington D. C. Armistead reveals `not only the computers connected to the world-wide web but also the air-gapped stand-alone systems are vulnerable to the attack. (Armistead, op.cit. 115).

In 1999, President Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 68, titled International Public Information, which was an attempt to gain control over the external messages sent abroad from Washington (ibid., p. 5). Recall Musharraf’s nod to `with us or without’ message.

Lieutenant General S. Bogdanov, Chief of the General Staff for Strategic Studies (1991) points out, “Iraq lost the war before it even began…Iraqi troops were blinded and deafened…modern war can be worn by informatika and that is now vital for the U.S and USSR”. IW is waged not only against the enemy but also one’s own people (recall how Creel Committee, in just about six months. Whipped up anti-German hysteria and later Red-Square McCarthyism).

Scientists of different countries are now studying not only the ability of information warfare to effect the values, emotions, and belief of target audiences (traditional psychological warfare theory), but also methods to affect the objective reasoning process of soldiers and civilians. That is affecting not only the data-processing capability of hardware and software but also the data-processing capability of the human mind.

American researchers are studying influence of information technology on the minds of civilians and soldiers (combat fatigue, youth violence, disobedience, etc.). Books on social psychology contain research which indicates that a man can be motivated to do a crime or act against his own conscience or value system.

Inference: Fifth-generation war is believed to be a vague term. George Orwell (Politics and the English Language) suggested that that trying to find a clear-cut definition of fifth-generation or hybrid war would reveal exactly that kind of vagueness, with the use of important-sounding, pseudo-technological words to impress readers and convince them that this war is being fought at a level the layperson cannot comprehend. India has proved that it understands dimensions of the fifth generation war or fake news. It knows how to apply its techniques to achieve its objectives. Time for Pakistan to wake up.