WHILE flipping through Indian news channels last night, I was met with scenes that felt more like a poorly written bollywood movie than a credible news broadcast.
Analysts and anchor, with almost theatrical confidence, were claiming and celebrating that the Indian navy had “flattened the Karachi port” and promised that few BrahMos missile would soon “erase” the city of lights from the map.
These weren’t offhand remarks — they were presented as breaking news, with dramatic visuals and chest-thumping nationalism aimed not at informing the public, but at igniting war hysteria.
This is the reality of Indian media today.
The country’s leading news channels have long abandoned their journalistic responsibilities in favor of state-aligned propaganda.
At a time when sober analysis and factual reporting are crucial, Indian media is instead stoking dangerous flames, trading in fiction, and feeding an already hyper-militarized national psyche.
The recent false flag Pahalgam incident was instantly and without evidence linked to Pakistan.
Newsrooms claimed a “direct kinetic response” was needed, citing supposed connections between the attack and a prior statement by Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir.
The claim was not only speculative, but it deliberately distorted his remarks, turning a general policy comment into a fabricated pretext for conflict escalation.
This is not journalism — it is narrative engineering designed to serve political goals.
Indian Godi media is following the foot steps of Hitler’s chief propagandist, Josheph Goebbels.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
Truth is the greatest enemy of a state.”
Unfortunately, this pattern is not new.
Indian media has repeatedly played the role of provocateur rather than press.
From the 2016 Uri attack to the 2019 Pulwama and now Pahalgam, Pakistan was blamed almost immediately and the burden of proof was deemed unnecessary.
The idea was not to investigate, but to assign guilt — a role the media embraced with dangerous enthusiasm.
Studio discussions turned into mock war rooms, complete with military experts, graphics of missiles flying over borders and anchors declaring imminent strikes.
By manipulating public opinion through jingoistic coverage, it justifies aggressive policies and silences any domestic dissent or calls for restraint.
In this echo chamber of nationalism, facts take a backseat to fervor.
One of the most glaring examples of this was the coverage of the abrogation of Article 370, the constitutional provision that granted autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian channels hailed it as a historic victory, while completely ignoring the severe clampdown that followed — including mass detentions, communication blackouts and widespread human rights concerns.
The lived experiences of Kashmiris were erased in favor of triumphalist storytelling.
Indian media has become a powerful tool not of accountability, but of alignment — parroting the state’s voice, vilifying Pakistan and dramatizing conflict.
In doing so, it risks not only misinformation but miscalculation.
At a time when nuclear-armed neighbors are on war footings, such irresponsibility could have catastrophic consequences.
If peace is to stand a chance, it must begin with truth.
And for that, Indian media must look in the mirror — and remember that the role of journalism is to inform (the truth), not to incite.
The blind loyalty of Godi media towards the principles of Joseph Goebbels risks the situation into dangerous and unforeseen consequences.
—(The writer is an alumnus of QAU, MPhil scholar & a freelance columnist, based in Islamabad. (fa7263125@gmail.com)
