By Antriksh Kar Singh
A father fails to attend his daughter’s marriage ceremony in California, United States of America (USA). The reason for this absence is a systematic flaw cropped up in the Indian system rather than any financial or family issues. The man failed to get his passport renewed because of an ‘adverse report’ from police based on deletion of his name from electoral rolls during Special Intensive Reason (SIR) exercise in West Bengal. His name was among many names deleted during the exercise but this case is interesting because the person is a well-known senior journalist. But still the passport renewal hangs in balance.
Interestingly, the West Bengal police made name deletion a base for ‘adverse report’, though an affidavit before the Supreme Court during a hearing mentioned that SIR deletion wouldn’t be used for other purposes. However, SIR exercise results became base in this case and reportedly many more in West Bengal.
Hence, a question arises, what is the truth in this case? The facts in the affidavit before the highest court of the country or the action taken by an agency- police in this matter. In fact, neither is true nor false because the affidavit is by a part of the system and action is by another, wherein both can and would justify their stands. It is something partially right and wrong at the same instance depending on the perspective, belief and ideology of a person. Such a thing closely resembles what can be termed as ‘Half-truth’- phenomenon observed in politics in a post-truth world. Whatever be the case, ultimately, the common man suffers because this causes flaws in the daily governance systems.
Similarly, we fellow citizens were recently provided details of our martyrs of ‘Operation Sindoor.’ Those six security personnel had given supreme sacrifice on the line of national duty in the 2025 operation carried out in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. The information was however released after 13 months. An official response in the Indian parliament immediately after the operation denied any death in operation, which was a blatant lie violating norms and precedence of the august house. It is not hard to guess the reason for hiding information, which has become a routine affair now.
The decision to hide information was purely for political gain and to show the countrymen that the nation is under strong and decisive rule taking actions for its safety without any loss. It was part of a grand communication strategy to control the narrative in the aftermath of the operation and showcase the ruling regime in good light. However, releasing details now casts doubts over intentions as those, who have given the supreme sacrifice, are our real heroes deserving the highest regards and remembrance and the government shall take care of their families with respect and care.
Such a hiding of information is however not a new thing in our system. The country witnessed similar tactics as a face-saving strategy during the first and second wave of disastrous SARS-COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020 and 2021. The governments across the political spectrum hid the infected case details and fatalities using their prowess in order to appear better than others even in that era of uncertainty. However, even this came before the public through investigative journalistic reports and maximum credit goes to the Indian Supreme court for its timely intervention. The apex court order mandated compensation not only for those who were COVID-19 positive at the time of the death but also those who died due to complications post virus infection.
The state government gave compensation to kins, who were in some cases up to six times higher than the number of official death records, following the orders from the highest court. Such a high number of compensation cast doubt over the official records of pandemic and these differences have been substantially reported. The official response in Indian parliament and records in COVID-19 pandemic constitute strategic use of ‘lies’ through several unjustifiable logic and reason for political gains. However, the most prominent thing that needs attention here is that all these tactics and related strategies distort information reaching to masses affecting them cognitively i.e., belief, perception and attitude hampering their wisdom and ability to make decisions. Even though actual facts came to fore after several months, the distorted information has already damaged information sanctity and trust, which shall be saved in a diverse and developing nation like India.
The fundamental thing in a democratic nation is real, true and pure information for making decisions including electoral choices. ‘Informed choices’ are the most important in any electoral democracies like ours but when the ‘sanctity of information is itself violated’ how the purity of election and democracy would be preserved? It is a big question before us in this ‘instant digital era’, where the ‘slow and patient’ thinking has been taken over by the ‘fast paced instant’ solution-oriented world. However, it appears that mankind has forgotten that humans are the most complex creature on this earth and so their behaviour, which can’t have ‘instant solution’ in the form of fixes but requires ‘critically reflective solutions.’ This challenge of ‘Half-truth’ and ‘Lies’ in public sphere- digital as well as physical, needs ‘critically reflective’, ‘well-read’, ‘well-versed’ society as its counter instead of reliance on the detection technologies or law putting regulatory ban because technology and law is a human creation and have chances of (mis)use through exploitation of their loopholes. Therefore, it is utmost important for our society to begin inculcating the habit of asking the right question at right time, not to be frightened by power and position, critically analysing happenings around us and corroborating facts from multiple sources instead of relying on easy and cheaply available sources like social media.
(The author is a third-year PhD research scholar in Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong)
