People crying why meltdown here, and why we are so disappointed with pictures since we always knew the outcome?
Understand this, information warfare has been used to weaken the enemy since time immemorial. In fact in
Mahabharata, the killing of
Guru Dronacharya using fake news of his son's death was an excellent example of how information warfare can weaken and even change the tide of war.
Information warfare is a branch of warfare, similar to electronic attacks, cyber-attack, or terrorism.
It is the responsibility of GoI & the military to control and counter information warfare.
So why so much meltdown? What can we learn from this and prepare better in the future?
- The world is translating to a digital world. People are spending an average of 2 to 5 hours online, and hence our world has translated from physical to digital. It is only natural that we get hurt when something bad happens in our digital world.
- If GoI released pictures/videos and kept 100% clarity from day zero of the clash, there would have been nothing to hide. Now that we have hidden and disclosed the majority of the information about Galwan clash, this raises the enemy to put a crack in our narrative by using these footages and images.
- In the future, it will be imperative to keep the confidence of the population with occasional press conferences and information disclosure. Actively fight and respond to similar footage/image releases from enemy countries, including releasing counter-images, or calling them fake/fabricated as necessary.