India’s mainstream media and social networking platforms faced another embarrassment as their propaganda fell flat after giving a false spin to a video clip of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The media frenzy based on misleading and out-of-context reporting of a statement of Pakistan’s Prime Minister ended into an awkward situation for India, revealing its ‘propaganda machinery on the loose’.
The viral video showing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remark on the Indian government went viral with the claim that he admitted that India has not seen a government as “strong and iron-willed in the last 73 years”.
Many users on social media shared the clip to claim that Imran Khan praised the Indian government. However, the careful examination of the video showed that the Indian media was undoubtedly treading on the fallacious path of yellow journalism. In the video, PM Khan can be heard saying, “If Pakistan needs a stronger army, then it needs it today. And why is it needed? Because our neighbouring country…in 73 years India didn’t have a government like it has today…the government that is totalitarian, racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan … never has such a government been formed … and what they are doing to Kashmiris…” In a blind following to the Indian media, several noted intellectuals of the country also gave their opinions based on the same ‘unverified and false information’.
India’s right-wing author and commentator Shefali Vaidya tweeted a 32-second-long video and wrote: “You cannot have a more ringing endorsement of @narendramodi govt than this. Your sworn enemy publicly admitting that in 73 years India had never had a government as strong and iron-willed as this!” Chetan Bragta, IT Cell head and convener of BJP’s Himachal Pradesh unit, also tweeted the video, saying: “Imran Khan said Pakistan needs powerful military because India has not got such powerful government in 73 years.” OpIndia, too, published an article on the basis of the viral video, while several Twitter and Facebook users shared the video with the same claim. The continuous role of India media watchdogs as a propaganda tool against Pakistan has left a question mark on the authenticity of journalism in the country that has become pawn of the State.
