War by other means

Union home secretary R.K. Singh was careful on Saturday not to blame official Pakistan when he said Indian investigations had revealed there were more than 100 portals in Pakistan that had uploaded morphed content with misleading texts designed to incite Muslim communities to retaliate and avenge themselves for atrocities on fellow Muslims in Burma and Assam in India.

Creating panic, fear, and frustration — essentially a feeling of helplessness and instability — among large sections of the population have been for centuries acknowledged tools of war, typically pursued through the propaganda arms of government agencies or their armed forces. Even so, Union home secretary R.K. Singh was careful on Saturday not to blame official Pakistan when he said Indian investigations had revealed there were more than 100 portals in Pakistan that had uploaded morphed content with misleading texts designed to incite Muslim communities to retaliate and avenge themselves for atrocities on fellow Muslims in Burma and Assam in India. It is this that led to the spate of the issuance of thousands of group SMSes and MMSes which caused the recent flight of people belonging to the Northeast from India’s southern metropolises, especially Bengaluru, besides provocative demonstrations and calls for hostile action in Uttar Pradesh.
It was entirely predictable, though, that when home minister Sushilkumar Shinde did raise the matter with Pakistan’s Rehman Malik on Sunday, that Islamabad would deny the whole thing. Such a shortsighted approach on its part can’t help quicken the pace towards normalisation of relations. A country seeking genuinely friendly ties with a neighbour should be able to lend a helping hand in nabbing offending parties, even if these are private individuals or hate institutions, of which there is no dearth in Pakistan. Any Indian accomplices of the Pakistani mischief-makers must of course be treated as agents provocateur and dealt with as such.