Western media houses have been historically antithetical to India. They are known to escalate anti-India rhetoric with manipulated content and fake narratives. They repeatedly pose suspicion towards India’s growth story and categorically orchestrate the stories to systematically derail the developmental prospects, democracy and global stature of India. However, the western media doesn’t operate on the same principles to deal with Pakistan, which in reality suffers from economic crisis, political anarchy, military iron fist and series of demonstrations & public unrest across provinces.
The latest testament to this hypocrisy of western media houses was witnessed during the CJP protests. While the international media wings rushed to cover the protests of the Cockroach Janata Party(CJP) in India, they chose selective ignorance towards the massive protests against Islamabad in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir(PoJK). While the western media sent ground reporters and glorified the CJP protests by manufacturing fabricated content, they chose to remain silent or under-report the pain of the people in PoJK and the atrocities, violence of Pakistan.
Why do western media houses have embraced these double standards? Is it a calculated and systematic move, to choke India’s economic and developmental trajectory which is scaling at a remarkable pace or is it because Pakistan is a tool of certain western countries & ideologies, who act as a puppet at times of crises? Is it an attempt to defame the global stature of India, by constructing fake narratives? Most importantly, why do western media clubs repeatedly & consistently shield Pakistan and ignore its economic fracture, political anarchy, military overpower, domestic disintegration & demonstrations, armed rebellion against Islamabad and state-sponsored terrorism?
Amplification of CJP protest & accelerating fake narratives
The protest configured by the Cockroach Janata Party(CJP) in New Delhi in the previous week, travelled across the globe at lightning speed. Every western media outlet such as Reuters, BBC, The Guardian, CNN International, Fox News, Associated Press, France 24 took up the issue and did instant coverage. They were sharp and swift to amplify the protests in India & fuelled further fire to the demonstrations by manipulating the ground reality and exaggerating the issue.
Al Jazeera in fact, deployed ground reporters in New Delhi to catch the happenings in India and report it to the globe rigorously, ofcourse in a tone that it intends to. Every news outlet doesn’t just report the CJP protest. But, they articulated it as India’s biggest democratic crisis. They echoed the fake tone of autocracy and breakdown of democracy in India. The CJP protest was centred towards a specific issue, which is control of crimes such as paper leak and a demand for educational reforms for the welfare of the students.
The government held a series of discussions with the youth and acknowledged the demands. In this direction, fast-track courts have been established, anti-paper leak legislations have been introduced and the punishment or penalties for crimes such as paper leak have been tailored more stringently. The whole episode is a living testament to the successful survival & existence of democracy in India, where people have the right to protest without bowing down to bullets and the government concedes to their demands through dialogue and laws.
However, this issue specific CJP protest was manipulated by the western media outlets as democratic backsliding in India, democratic awakening, Gen Z uprising and political turning point. These terms, outrightly resonate the core intention of the western media. It is to fuel apathy, confusion, anger, frustration in India about the prevailing situation in the country and simultaneously build a negative image across the globe regarding India’s democracy.
Silence towards PoJK protests and Pakistan’s iron fist
The same enlisted western media houses, while choreographing fake narratives about Indian democracy, selectively forgot the real democratic backsliding and erosion of fundamental rights in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir(PoJK). They ignored the months of uprising, public unrest, death of hundreds of civilians to Pakistani bullets. While the western media wings called out the CJP protest in India as a political turning point and democratic awakening, they quoted protests in PoJK as clashes, local unrest and election-related violence.
These terms again unmask the hidden intentions and agenda of Pakistan, to speak about the unrest in PoJK in a less intense tone and to confine it as a local demonstration. However, PoJK is boiling in bloodshed. The civilians who are fighting for their fundamental rights are violently crushed in a brutal crackdown by the Pakistani security forces. There is lack of electricity, water and severe crunch to other basic necessities, coupled with poor infrastructure & steep unemployment. As a tool to shut the voice of the protestors Islamabad has escalated internet shutdown and complete communication blackout.
Mass arrests and unlawful detentions are witnessed in Rawalkot, Mirpu, Kotli and Muzaffarabad. The deadly suppression by Rawalpindi has led to the death of more than 40 civilians this week in PoJK and hundreds of others have been critically injured. It is also said that since the protests broke out in the occupied territory of India months ago, Pakistan has killed more than 100 people. The security forces are mercilessly targeting even the protesting women in PoJK. People have also outrightly rejected the elections in PoJK as illegitimate and rigged.
The occupied Indian territory of Pakistan is thus boiling under bloodshed. However, the voices of the innocent civilians of PoJK are rarely heard and reported in the western media. The international media is thus running a selective playbook in the information domain. Choosing selective outrage over transparency and fair reporting. Choosing fake narratives and manipulation over democracy & human rights. Crowing a sustained & relentless international campaign against India, while remaining silent over the misdeeds & brutality of Islamabad & Rawalpindi in PoJK. The ultimate question that thrives is, when will western media halt this double standards and selective reporting?
