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Wednesday 20 February 2019

WINNING THE MEDIA WAR IN KASHMIR


What is urgently required is a fully secure building in Delhi, staffed by army officers at the top echelons.
Lets call this building, the BLUE BOX. The top ‘management’ of this Blue Box must be thin. The rest of the team, thousands, will be civilians, with age around 25 years.
Content writers, videographers, special effects experts, video editors, hackers, social media experts, research scholars, experts in Islamic theology, linguists, songwriters and musicians, all under the same roof.
We need recording studios, server rooms, IT hardware, software, high speed Internet and all equipment related to content creation and social media. We need Kashmiri Muslim men and women working for us - those thousands of them who also put their lives on the line each day to tell India’s story.
We must mobilize them.

They should be paid well, and made to sign NDAs. Thousands of Twitter handles, Facebook profiles, Instagram accounts, blogs, Vlogs, websites and WhatsApp groups need to be created, a veritable firestorm of pro-India content.

There must be action at multiple levels. Creation of content to counter malicious propaganda, creation of content to push our own narrative and ‘managing’ local Kashmiri media are the three immediate challenges.

IW must percolate down to the Rashtriya Rifles Sector level. It is important for the Sector Commanders to have their own IW team of professionals (civilians included), which is directly plugged into IW of Victor Force and Kilo Force. These must, in turn, be plugged into the IW cells of XV Corps, Northern Command and ADGPI. It is also essential to post a qualified IW officer at the RR battalion level. He may not generate IW content directly, but most information will pass through him. Information Warfare is both top down and bottom up. A simple top down approach can be detrimental because when it comes to social media use, both information and content are mostly generated at the ground level.

The need of the hour is to go on a massive media and social media offensive. It is important to flood Kashmir with a counter narrative.

RR Battalion and Sector Commanders must have the independence to deal with local and national media.
Because, otherwise, one has to be a Kashmiri to be able to stay in and report from the Valley.

The local Kashmiri media is another kettle of fish. Hiding behind the façade of freedom of expression, it deals in rumors, insinuation and lies. While Indian media is known to be a little elastic with the truth, local Kashmiri media often behaves like the propaganda wing of the Hurriyat. I wouldn’t be surprised if individual reporters are on Pakistan’s payroll. Look at it from the ISI’s perspective. It makes perfect sense.

Kashmiri TV channels are an urgent requirement.
DD Kashir is a dead duck.
FM Channels should become a part of Kashmiri life. Both audio and video content must be beamed live across the Valley.
Newspapers in Kashmiri and Urdu should be launched that tell our story.

We simply have to find a way to communicate with Kashmiris through TV, print, radio, web and social media. There is no other road.

Massive infusion of funds is needed in the education system in Kashmir. Madrasas funded by Jamaat-i-Islami must be shut down gradually and replaced with schools with a modern curriculum.

This madness, which pervades Kashmir, is a mental illness. This madness will not go away, unless we attack its foundation. The foundation is in the mind.

But end, it must. The Blue Box is no longer a luxury. It is a question of survival.

Ministries and departments cannot run the Blue Box. It cannot be run by intelligence agencies. They simply don’t have the capability or the understanding. Teenagers and young adults, mavericks who don’t follow the rules, must run the Blue Box. The army must supervise this operation.

It is time to call in the Indian Army once more. The only difference will be that this time, the laptop will replace the AK 47. 
The Indian Army is the only institution that has men on ground and can get the job done. No excuses, no stories, no delays.

The Blue Box is what the Indian Army urgently needs in Kashmir. It has enough weapons, bulletproof jackets and helmets. There is no dearth of such equipment. But you cannot kill an idea, however poisonous, with an AK 47.

*Only an idea can kill an idea*

Gaurav Arya


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