While Pakistani establishment struggles to soothe out the internal uproar after India’s move to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, help for the rogue nation is coming out from various pseudo-liberal media outfits based in India itself. The Wire among other media portals, has been called out a number of times for its skewed and controversial reporting on sensitive issues and has been putting out ‘convenient’ reports which are then being used by the deep state in Pakistan to further radicalize its population against India.
Recently Imran Khan’s ruling party in Pakistan, PTI has tweeted a video clip from The Wire, claiming “While the world enjoys #LIVNOR, a Kashmiri mother mourns whose was shot from a pellet gun, a youngster full of dreams loses his sight, an elderly man in a hospital requests at least phones to be operational. Know them, raise voice for them, help them! #SaveKashmirFromModi”
While the world enjoys #LIVNOR, a Kashmiri mother mourns whose was shot from a pellet gun, a youngster full of dreams loses his sight, an elderly man in a hospital requests at least phones to be operational. Know them, raise voice for them, help them!#SaveKashmireFromModi pic.twitter.com/kdYSUVrcEf
— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 9, 2019
In the said video The Wire Founder Siddharth Varadarajan claims to be interacting with patients at the government operated Sri Maharaj Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar, while the report is clearly skewed and only meekly employs hedged arguments to malign the security preparations in the two union territories, Pakistan deep state has been making the most out of these half baked reports to its advantage in the anti-India front. Nonetheless, if The Wire’s lopsided narrative is being used by a foreign aggressor, it is against India’s national interests, it surely raises sharp questions on the intent of these reports by The Wire.
The Wire in the past has also been called out for its highly divisive and objectively poor reports on several issues, with most of the reports and opinion pieces mostly amounting to just blatant fear-mongering and clear disconnect with ground realities. Nonetheless, looking at the trend it is not surprising that enemies of India in Pakistan have picked up these reports to justify and propagate their anti India agenda.
Specifically related to legislative developments in the two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, these vacuous reports by the Wire and also other organizations have not only been highly misleading but also reek of sinister intent. In a recent video The Wire had also referred to the Union territories as Indian occupied Kashmir and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as ‘Azad Kashmir’; this video which claimed to talk about ‘the security, political and diplomatic fallout’ was hosted by none other than Siddharth Varadarajan, who is an American citizen.
Screenshot from Youtube video posted by The Wire :
Srinagar etc areas are labelled as "Indian occupied part" while much of PoK is labelled as "Azad Kashmir."
Ab bolenge to bologe ki bolta hai…. pic.twitter.com/AfC24kFrUg
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) August 8, 2019
The Jammu and Kashmir map displayed in the video, referred to large part of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir as Indian occupied Kashmir, while the Indian sovereign land captured by Pakistani military and proxy forces was referred as Azad Kashmir, in the language of Pakistan. After massive outrage on social media, the Wire removed the video in question.
Earlier, Pakistani establishment had similarly used a video by NDTV, another controversial media outlet, to further propagate and justify their hate against India. Howeve,r NDTV in a surprising and shocking move came out and tried to distance itself away from the use of the dangerously misleading and unverified report by NDTV.
The Pseudo-liberal establishment in India has been infamous at aiding nefarious foreign propaganda to undermine peace and prosperity in the region; and have evidently accelerated its efforts post the 2014 general elections after parties which had provided them free ground for long were driven out from power. While these skewed attempts continue to hurt India’s interests both internally and geo-politically, authorities should surely take on these ‘reports’ to keep a check on such activities where ulterior motives over power ethics and sensitivity. The Wire is very well known for weaving false narratives which work against Indian interests and in such a situation where a massive disinformation campaign is being mastered by Pakistan, The Wire playing into their hands raises many questions, especially, whether such portals should be allowed to function in India.
