By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
In a chaotic democracy like ours, the outfits that perhaps work the most are the IT Cells of the political parties. If that much effort were to be put in information warfare to advance our national interests, we would be far ahead from where we are today. These IT Cells have no norms, no boundaries. The lies, slander and muck thrown at each other is relentless – matching some of the uneducated (holders of fake degrees included), uncouth and chump lawmakers that the public has to suffer.
No doubt these IT Cells would be getting ‘some’ political directions, mainly to increase their respective vote banks by launching cheap and dirty disinformation campaigns that get frenzied closer to election time.
It is but natural that whichever is the ruling political party, BJP in this case, has the maximum resources available for propaganda. This is not only about the Kailash Range in Eastern Ladakh, which was reduced from “strategic” to “tactical” and then worth nothing when we vacated it because China showed a ‘Lal Ankh’ (Red Eye) to India. But when such propaganda includes external issues, some norms and basic intelligence needs to be exercised lest we become the laughing stock of the world.
In the above context, the list of idiotic posts is endless. However, two recent ones are mentioned here. In one case, the post reads that NSA Ajit Doval during his recent visit to Moscow this month “warned” Russia against tilting towards China. This is horribly stupid even if the aim was to glorify Doval who recently went berserk after an unbalanced man hit his vehicle against his outer gate, and sacked the DIG CISF heading his security unit, his second-in-command (Commandant-rank) and another CISF officer. But forget Doval, would Prime Minister Narendra Modi “warn” President Vladimir Putin against tilting towards Beijing? Has the brain of the author of this post dislocated to his backside?
The second example concerns China’s spy ship ‘Yuan Wang 5’ which recently docked at Hambantota in Sri Lanka and has since left on August 22. India naturally had security concerns and approached Sri Lanka, which should have been without fanfare. The news that Sri Lanka asked China to “defer” the ship visit was hailed as some sort of diplomatic victory. But did we really expect Sri Lanka to ‘stop’ China from sending the ship, when we ourselves have been hiding multiple intrusions made by China in Ladakh during 2020?
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Finally, the MEA had to say that Sri Lanka is a sovereign country. Thereafter, a post popped up claiming that India created a Signal Shield against Yuan Wang 5 docked at Hambantota Port. The gist of the post is as under:
· India deployed four satellites (two GSAT-7 satellites, RISAT, Emisat spy satellite) and Navy’s communication warship to counter the security threat from the spy ship.
· The shield, using the Kautilya electronic intelligence package on the Emisat, can intercept and deflect surveillance signals from the spy ship; since antennas, radars, sensors, data-absorbing systems and surveillance signals from the ship could be intercepted.
· No message from India can go beyond the signal shield. It will also mislead surveillance signals aimed at China. It will be difficult for Chinese devices to collect accurate data.
As if the above was not enough, a simultaneous post circulating on WhatsApp added more nonsense as under:
· India is flooding the Chinese spy ship with “Secret Intelligence Data”
· Chinese President Xi Jinping has already fired the Chinese military expert who gave him the idea to send this ship to Sri Lanka.
· The storage disks in the ship were already full and had to be formatted to store the new junk.
· The Chinese ship’s communication protocols, encryption technology and other multiple standards stand exposed
· The Chinese ship is being screwed from all sides by the meticulously planned and carefully executed Indian response.
· International intelligence experts were amazed how India has tackled the Chinese threat with such a master plan.
Prime Minister Modi recently said he wants to see a drone in every Indian’s hand. So, do the IT Cell think every individual is a brainless robot? If we had the capabilities mentioned in the above posts, would we publicize them and why would we try to stop the Chinese ship from coming to Sri Lanka? On the other hand if someone has let out whatever little secret capability we have in this sphere, should the individual not be tried for treason; have we not used the Official Secrets Act for instances not so grave as this? Besides, who confirmed that the hard disks of the Chinese ship were full? And, if we say Xi Jinping sacked the “expert”, how come we don’t know the name?
The above demonstrates the foolishness of the government’s propaganda machinery. It is time to put on the thinking caps.It would be prudent to have selected persons with requisite IQ in these IT Cells, as well as whoever directs them, because the nonsensical posts directed against political parties are quite different from external propaganda posts on social media like Twitter, which is accessible to anyone. Let us not embarrass ourselves.
This is not the first time that China’s intelligence gathering ships have come to the Indian Ocean although this perhaps was the first visit by Yuan Wang 5. There have been earlier occasions when China has also used autonomous underwater drones to explore the seabed, which also is one of the tasks of Yuan Wang 5 including tracking submarine hides and movement deep below.
More movement of Chinese warships (intelligence gathering vessels included) and submarines will happen in the Indian Ocean. Some of these will not only dock at Hambantota (leased to China for 99 years) under whatever pretext, but also Pakistan and Myanmar – even Bangladesh? We need to build and consolidate our military strength and keep reviewing our maritime strategy based on military advice from the Service Chiefs, not exclusively on the armchair strategist in the Ministry of Defence and the uniformed yes-men posted therein.
Presently, China’s 5G network along the LAC is interfering with the communications of our forward troops. Where China has signed a deal with Solomon Islands for Huawei to establish a 5G network in that country, we can be certain China will do the same in Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Majority of mobile and smart-phones in India are Chinese. Chinese mobiles phones costing less than Rs 16,000 are reportedly to be banned, perhaps to promote Jio mobiles. But Jio mobiles also continue to use Chinese batteries though some other parts are being imported from Vietnam – where is Atmanirbhar Bharat?
Cheap power generation, transmission technologies, lighting, telephone and CCTV cameras and circuits are mostly Chinese which would have embedded spyware; same as in mobiles, laptops and ipads. Has any study been done about the extent of China’s technical penetration in India?
Finally, we need to quit the tomfoolery as above. We must build the requisite potential and brag less, if required at all. As it is there are very few secrets in India, with China and Pakistan having penetrated our administration. Not very long back Subramanian Swamy had tweeted that a number of our lawmakers are in the Hawala racket and some bureaucrats of the Ministry of Defence have been honey-trapped by the ISI.
The author is an Indian Army veteran.
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