Misinformation and disinformation are no longer mere headline-grabbers, they now have tentacles so long an entire region’s foreign policy can be held hostage. Recent India-Bangladesh tensions serve as a useful example to study these tentacles.
On the one hand, we have legitimate Bangladeshi concerns over the ferociously (and unnecessarily) vitriolic coverage of Dhaka’s revolution by many Indian media outlets.
On the other, we have legitimate Indian concerns that there does indeed seem to be an anti-secular, anti-Hindu narrative being spread in Bangladesh, which could lead to security issues for New Delhi if left unchecked.
“Misinformation” generally refers to the spreading of false information, regardless of intent. The more dangerous trend is “Disinformation”, or the deliberate propagation of false information, intended to mislead the audience. The former is difficult to deal with, but the latter presents a greater threat.
Locking this in are the incompatible media narratives on both sides. From the Bangladeshi perspective, India is trying to defame the new leadership and wants Sheikh Hasina back in power, even if it means painting the revolution as a fanatical one. From the Indian perspective, the anti-Hasina coalition is harbouring many religious extremists and none of these revolutionaries have anything in common with each other, save for an anti-India stance.
Blame Game
This deadlock has led to Bangladesh accusing India of spreading disinformation against the interim regime, with claims of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” being pushed by some Indian outlets. To ordinary Bangladeshis, such hyperbole would certainly be enraging.
Dhaka asserts that although it is true attacks on Hindus have been recorded, this is not simply one-dimensional religious persecution. For instance, independent investigations by Netra News concluded that out of the nine Hindus who were reported to have been murdered in the Unity Council’s report, seven were killed due to personal and political enmities, rather than religion.
Many further point out that most of the police stations were empty in the immediate aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, which led to a surge in public violence where everybody, including minorities, were affected by the chaos. The Bangladeshi position is that such instances of anarchy are being misrepresented as either systemic or systematic religious persecution. In other words, disinformation at play.
Suspicion Rules
On the Indian side, it is easy to see why the change was viewed so suspiciously. New Delhi’s neighborhood, especially back in August when all this unfolded, was far more volatile than what it is today. There was complete instability in Pakistan, deeply anti-Indian election rhetoric in the Maldives and a political vacuum in Sri Lanka. Sheikh Hasina seemed the only somewhat reliable partner in the region. And then, things fell apart there too, faster than any could have expected.
Although it would be unfair to compare the two scenarios, the way in which Bangladesh’s government collapsed had many parallels to what we have seen in Syria more recently, where disparate ideological groups converged against the government at the same time, toppling the regime at a speed which gave most no time to react.
And much like Syria, there was a great deal of paranoia over who would now be in charge. India (and everyone else for that matter) only had enough time to muster a knee jerk response.
Anger, Denial
The Bangladeshi interim government’s reaction and the surge in disinformation since then has only compounded the paranoia. Just as how some Indian outlets exaggerate religiously motivated violence, Dhaka seems more interested in denying rather than acknowledging the problem. The consistent tone from the Yunus regime has been a dismissive one, with little sympathy for India’s inevitable concerns when Hindus and temples are reportedly attacked in a neighboring country.
The arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das (on sedition charges no less) and the freezing of several ISKCON related bank accounts is emblematic of this. The Bangladeshi Attorney General’s calls for the word “secularism” to be purged from the constitution do not help either.
During such moments, it is quite typical for the media industry of a democracy to enter hyperdrive mode and sensationalize content. One can, for instance, often see sabre-rattling reports in the Western media whenever a new crisis breaks out.
Media War
In India, the size and power of the news industry tends to magnify this phenomenon even more. Many of us outside India often fail to grasp the sheer scale and influence of the Indian news ecosystem.
According to the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the country has nearly 400 news channels on television alone, with nearly 4,000 digital news publishers. You could put Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Afghanistan together, and still fall well short of these staggering numbers.
To make things worse, this colossal news industry has a terrible track record of upholding India’s national interest. One must not forget that this is the same news media which recklessly broadcasted the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai all over the world, resulting in Ajmal Kasab and his associates knowing exactly where the Indian authorities were (via their Pakistani handlers watching Indian channels), while local security forces knew nothing of where the terrorists were hiding.
In such an environment, it is perhaps unavoidable that misinformation becomes normalized during moments of crisis. Beating the competition becomes more important than rational analysis or the national interest. And the more vitriolic the coverage, the more popular they seem to become.
What we are thus seeing is Dhaka and New Delhi accusing each other of a coordinated disinformation campaign against the other, while claiming all the mischief on their own side of the border to be incidental, uncoordinated events.
Many Bangladeshis claim that India has launched an organized disinformation campaign, but that anti-Hindu attacks in Bangladesh are uncoordinated and random. Similarly, many Indians claim that any disinformation being spread by their side is simply a byproduct of having an uncontrollable media, but that anti-minority sentiments are being flamed in Bangladesh systematically. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
The larger point at play here is how fake news (both in terms of exaggerating and denying claims) can nosedive the relationship between two countries. While there would have been many challenges in warming up to each other even in a rational atmosphere, the cacophony on both sides, fueled by fake narratives, has made it downright impossible to come together.
Diplomatic Minefield
Ultimately, it is the job of level-headed diplomats to maneuver through this minefield. The visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to Dhaka will hopefully pave the way for more productive dialogue.
The overall South Asian region is more stable now, with the Muizzu regime ditching its “India Out” stance and Sri Lanka granting the NPP a historic mandate. While the Shabaz Sharif government in Pakistan might still be impossible to deal with, there is no need for the Yunus regime to go down that path. India and Bangladesh have a natural geopolitical alliance, with many common adversaries.
The Maldives has learned recently that Indian assistance is crucial for dealing with hard times, as did Sri Lanka during its own economic crisis. The sooner Dhaka heeds these examples, the better for the entire region.
Disinformation and denial on both sides however, are unlikely to wane anytime soon. Mischievous voices on both sides have too much to gain by spreading disinformation and too little to lose. The only disinfectant against this is a calm and courteous exchange of ideas. It is about time both sides realize that.
