The ongoing military confrontation that happened between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China has already emerged as the biggest military tussle in the Himalayas since the 1999 Kargil war.
There were heavy casualties after the violent face-off this Monday. The tussle has serious international repercussions because Beijing is being already blamed for killing lakhs of people with Chinese virus and behaving as a bully in Ladakh and the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the Chinese propaganda machinery is in full flow, bolstered by the liberal global media that is relentlessly pushing a misleading narrative about the face-off, viz. ‘China killed 20 Indian soldiers.’
In news headlines of the pro-China, international media headlines, there is absolutely no mention of the PLA soldiers who have been whacked to death by the Indian Army troops.
Therefore, the New York Times published a story titled, “Worst Clash in Decades on Disputed India-China Border Kills 20 Indian Troops.”
What NYT has also done is implicated “nationalist leaders”- a jibe at Prime Minister Modi, for “risking open conflict”. NYT has compromised with the truth in order to portray India as the aggressor.
These Western liberal media outlets love to hate India and Prime Minister Modi, despite the strong ties between the governments and people of the both the United Kingdom and the United States with India.
And when it comes to anti-India bias, the BBC never lags behind. The British media outlet tweeted, “At least 20 Indians died in clash with Chinese forces in Kashmir, India says, in first deadly skirmish for decades.”
At least 20 Indians died in clash with Chinese forces in Kashmir, India says, in first deadly skirmish for decades https://t.co/A5R8pvsdGe
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 16, 2020
BBC doesn’t even want to acknowledge India’s internal matter of bifurcating the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. This is why it has wrongly mentioned “Kashmir” as the venue of face-off.
Another UK media outlet Financial Times reported, “Twenty Indian soldiers killed in clash with Chinese troops in Himalayas.”
Washington Post too tried to project the PLA as a formidable force and undermine the Indian Army.
It reported, “20 Indian soldiers killed in first deadly clashes with Chinese troops in 45 years.”
Al Jazeera too carried a similar report titled, “India says 20 soldiers killed in border clash with China.”
Make no mistake, such tendentious reports with shoddy reporting, form part of deliberate, pro-China propaganda.
These liberal media outlets in the West are trying to project India as a weak player, by falsely suggesting Beijing’s military hegemony over New Delhi.
This is a message that these media outlets are trying to give to their own conservative governments not to boycott and punish China, by supporting its democratic neighbour.
This also comes at a time when the pro-China lobby around the world is rattled by increasing cooperation between democratic countries to counter growing Chinese influence and hegemony.