As India and Pakistan have gone fighting on air and wrestling on the airwaves, truth becomes the first casualty of war. War comes at a price - with casualty and collateral damages. It is not Bollywood movie "GHADR - EK PREM KATHA" where a Sunny Deol kills all Pakis who stand on his way, bringing his bride back from the heart of Lahore into India unscathed. There will be blood, sweat and tears on both sides of the border if the war lingers on.
A plethora of fake news and videos galore and have gone wild, hardly helping any other than making it difficult to chaff out the real news from fake ones. Responsibility has never been our forte. Media, social or otherwise is doing an utterly irresponsible reporting. In his book "WE INDIANS" Khushwant Singh has written a whole chapter about our SUBZANTAWALLA (Mr. Know All) tendency. This is pretty apparent now.
War is not a video game. Spreading rumors and misinformations can be deadly. Remember that the legendary Kautilya (Chanakya) the mentor of Chandragupta, the Scion of Maurya dynasty prescribed death penalty for those spreading rumors. In 300 BC he was way ahead of his time.
Reminds me of a story from the great folklore PANCHATANTRA (The Five Treatise), a series of meaningful short stories compiled by ancient story teller Vishnu Sharma. Once a sage told a snake to stop biting people. The snake followed the sage's order quite literally.
One day the badly beaten snake came back to the sage blaming him for his bad HAALAT (plight). The sage said - "I told you to stop biting, did not tell you to stop hissing or raising your fang". The snake got the hint and was never attacked again.
After showing immense restrain for more than quarter of a century in spite of constantly battered with fusillades from our western neighbor, we finally showed some spine. Our Nuclear weapons can be used to strike a lethal bite, but our hissing or raising the hood, snarling our venomous teeth can do a lot to scare them.
We have raised our fangs, flexing our muscles by bombing with the help of air power. It's time to stop airing bombastic jingoism on TV Channels and social media. Not that the Pakis won't create any nuisance in the future, but they are not going to take us lightly any further.
Let's have no qualms about Pakistan being diplomatically isolated in totality. When push comes to the shove China and Saudi will back Pakistan. America will stay neutral or at best will try to play the role of a peacemaker. So, a message for the armchair war mongers - let our soldiers and diplomats do their job. They have done a commendable job on their respective fronts. Lesson no 1 - War and diplomacy should never be done on media glare.
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