Radio Jhootisthan

K Srinivasan

During the 1965 and 1971 wars, the fake news factory in Pakistan churned out extraordinary stories by the dozens – mostly propagated by radio – that it was dubbed Radio Jhootisthan. Now, this is no one’s argument that spreading fake news is the exclusive privilege of the Pakistanis, but they have taken this devious art to another level.

The latest is the nonstop ‘in loop’ dissemination of stories that the Pakistan armed forces had downed five Indian aircraft – in fact, they had the precise specifications – three Rafales, one SU30 and one MIG 29 – on the night of Operation Sindoor. In fact, Pakistan’s military spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, while talking to CNN, said that Indian jets had been shot down. But the fact of the matter was that airspace that was being monitored by OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence that refers to the process of gathering and analysing publicly available information to gain intelligence) handles clearly shows zero activity around the region. This was another Jhootisthan. Strike by the DG ISPR (Pakistan Inter Services, Public Relations).

Bundle of lies

That apart, let us just look at some of the extraordinary Jhootisthan broadcasts over the past few days, soon after the Pahalgam tragedy on April 22. First, the news that Lieutenant General (LT Gen) DS Rana, Indian Military’s Director General- Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) had been sacked from his position and sent on Kala Paani to the Andamans for leaking crucial information concerning the so-called “false operation” in Pahalgam. The fact of the matter was that Lt Gen Rana had been promoted to the rank of an Army Commander and he was moving to assume command of Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), India’s prestigious maiden tri-services operational command.

Major News organisations across the board, including ARY News, GEO TV, Saama News, Dawn, The News, The Tribune and, of course, Radio Pakistan, prominently put out this piece of nonsense. This was followed up with another extraordinary Jhootisthan special, widely disseminated across social media in Pakistan, claiming that Northern Army Commander Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar had been sacked from his post as a follow-up to the Pahalgam incident through a fake letter from Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi.

The fact of the matter was that General Kumar, who had succeeded General Dwivedi as the head of the North ern Command, was retiring after four decades of service, to be succeeded by Lieutenant General Prateek Sharma. This was a routine transfer that was highlighted across Pakistani media and social media as a so-called tug of war in the top leadership of the Indian Army. One can understand the lay reader being taken in by the subterfuge, but when media heavyweights across the border tweet and reweet this false narrative, one wonders whether they are living in denial or want to be part of this Jhootisthan propaganda.

Minister’s admission

Sadly for Pakistan, their Jhootisthan narrative went up in smoke when Defence Minister Khwaja Asif accepted on Sky TV that indeed Pakistan was in the war of terror by training, managing and motivating terrorists and militants. It destroyed years and years of false propaganda that Pakistan was a victim of terror and not the epicentre of terror.

Is there any way that things can change? Looks unlikely considering that five aircraft were ‘shot down’ by the DG ISPR between 2 am and 5 am on the night of Operation Sindoor. It’s a country that lives in denial, and leading the charge is the Pakistan armed forces.

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