2019 February — Pulwama attacks

2 months before the 2019 General Election.

A narrative rarely forms organically. It takes great effort and constant repetition for an idea to grip the minds of so many people. The way the term ‘surgical strike’ became a part of an average Indian’s lexicon showed me how propaganda takes hold. It was a term that almost no one in the country had heard before, and yet in October 2016 & February 2019, it was a term that everyone was talking about.

Prime Minister Modi revealed to the nation that India had conducted a ‘surgical strike’ against terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC). It was presented as vengeance for the terrorist attack at an army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in which nineteen jawans were killed.

The surgical strikes gripped the entire nation’s imagination with TV channels airing dramatized stock footage and graphical simulations of how it would have been conducted. All social media accounts that the BJP managed delivered this news with great pride and the nation marveled at the decisiveness of the prime minister.

The opposition questioned the surgical strikes, leading to tirades from BJP leaders about how the Congress disrespected the army and was a party full of anti-national people. The fact was that this wasn’t the first cross-border surgical strike that India had conducted, but it was branded like no other.

A bombardment of information through news channels and social media platforms convinced the nation that something truly extraordinary had taken place. A similar branding exercise was undertaken several times, and in all instances, the BJP created a new enemy for the people to hate.

Beware of the information that is fed into our minds before the 2024 election. Polarisation could be a nasty tool used by the politicians of our times.

Singh, Shivam Shankar. How to Win an Indian Election (p. 70). Penguin Random House India Private Limited.