Straight away after having his allegation of Bangladeshi Hindu pilgrims being deterred from travelling to India debunked by CA Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, India This day’s Gaurav Sawant remarked that India had played a role in Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, nonetheless Bangladesh itself now “appears to be turning into one other Pakistan”.
A visibly annoyed Alam answered, “You might per chance presumably be flooded with industrial-scale misinformation.”
The interview began with the presenter claiming that a “soft persecution of Hindus” used to be happening in Bangladesh and that “if fact be told, this Yunus-executive insider truly denies Hindu hate”, setting the tone that such persecution used to be a fact, and questioning how the Yunus executive might per chance per chance presumably dare to disclaim it. Then, Sawant goes on to impart that journalist Munni Saha used to be harassed in Dhaka attributable to her Hindu identity.
Whether Gaurav is misinformed or he deliberately promotes right here is up for debate.
However the fact stays that Indian media maintain launched a concerted campaign in opposition to Bangladesh since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, and it appears not going that they will let up any time shortly.
Amid the discussions in Dhaka about how to face these relentless anti-Bangladeshi narratives popping out of India, Shafiqul Alam not too long previously stated at an match that Indian media appears to maintain made up their mind, and talking to them is love talking to a wall.
In one other NDTV interview, whenever you happen to looked fastidiously, after they had been talking about the violence surrounding Chinmoy Krishna Das’ arrest, they had been truly showing footage of Awami League contributors mercilessly beating feminine college students for becoming a member of protests in opposition to Sheikh Hasina right thru the July Insurrection.
The misinformation and disinformation which maintain spread on Indian social media had been debunked by most fact-checking groups and international media, including the BBC, nonetheless it has already spread huge and much — even among Indian politicians.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not too long previously requested the Indian executive to ship a UN peacekeeping mission to Bangladesh.
Simply ignoring the topic isn’t going to work for Dhaka. Whereas the press secretary lauds the Bangladeshi journalists who seem on Indian television and defend our nation’s record, all these interviews maintain ended badly in the face of incessant grandstanding by the Indian hosts.
So, what’s the particular manner to face this discipline?
Shafquat Rabbee, a Bangladeshi-American geopolitical columnist, has launched a crowd-funded campaign to place an English language recordsdata channel in Bangladesh with the aim of debunking misinformation.
“It is laborious to fathom why any to blame geostrategist in India’s South Block would teach the barrage of misinformation raining down by strategy of the Web on Bangladesh for the reason that ouster of despot Hasina. We merely can’t gaze what profit this might per chance per chance presumably presumably allege for India, apart from constructing extra resentment among long-established Bangladeshis,” Shafquat stated.
He added that Hasina’s regime left Bangladesh after syphoning $16 billion per yr for 15 years. That would play a role in amplification of misinformation by strategy of India and other channels.
“It is also that you presumably can take into accounts that Indian media is merely a sufferer of the indisputable fact that they easiest nurtured relationships with correct one political occasion, which is now feeding them misinformation. No matter what the trigger, many Bangladeshis are now hurt seeing true, remorseless distribution of disinformation from Indian media, even when fact-checkers debunk those,” he added.
SM Suza Uddin, a central member of Jatiya Nagorik Committee and an just journalist, stated that Bangladesh can maintain to accrued initiate a bilateral, birth dialogue with Indian media owners and policymakers.
“This platform wants to be dedicated to collaboratively establishing correct accuracy and mitigating the spread of erroneous stories,” he stated. “Invite liberal citizens from both countries to portion their perspectives. These firsthand accounts can offer precious insights and counter the have an effect on of biased narratives.”
Suza told that the manager actively disseminate neatly suited recordsdata to television and media retailers, have interaction with international media and revered retailers, continue efforts to portion correct recordsdata with these platforms and focus on straight away with Meta and rush them to habits a fact-finding mission.
The truth is, Miranda Sissons, Meta’s director for human rights policy, met Chief Adviser Yunus on Sunday when the latter requested Meta to take care of the disinformation campaign in opposition to Bangladesh.
Professor Farhana Sultana of Syracuse University has been fact-checking the disinformation spread by Indian accounts on social media.
“The relentless falsified, misattributed, and AI-generated discipline fabric has been spread globally to poison the impression of put up-revolution Bangladesh,” she stated.
“Bangladesh is countering this wide orchestrated disinformation warfare by debunking it and submitting complaints. Right here is serious, nonetheless I have confidence about Bangladesh also wants a extra coordinated aggressive media presence to record our epic, to recent facts, and portion recordsdata,” Professor Farhana stated.
On the opposite hand, she admitted that few countries can match the gigantic IT troll farms in India and its “express-sponsored disinformation warfare”, nonetheless Farhana also highlighted that the Bangladesh executive can coordinate enhance from governmental, non-governmental and citizen groups to ticket a stronger presence of Bangladesh in international media and social media.
“Now we maintain certain messages to portion, of our solidarity, boost, rebuilding of democracy and additional. No one can maintain to accrued descend for the propaganda in opposition to Bangladesh with out fact-checking. Put a question to us, we exist. And we are no one’s colony,” she added.
Journalist Faisal Mahmud, who has been not too long previously posted as Press Minister on the Bangladesh Excessive Charge in Contemporary Delhi, stated the disinformation campaign being deliberately propagated by Indian media about Bangladesh is so blatantly erroneous and absurd that it has nearly grew to change into correct into a spectacle.
“On the opposite hand, the true discipline is that a essential half of the Indian population believes this narrative, and Bangladesh doesn’t wish to foster hostility among the many long-established Indian public. A sustained, successfully-crafted, and fact-essentially based counter-narrative must be developed to counter the disinformation spread by these Indian media retailers. This effort can maintain to accrued span across all platforms — both audiovisual and written,” Mahmud stated.
“As an illustration, social media influencers love Rafsan the Chotobhai and Nadir on the Proceed, who’re proficient in English and maintain wide social media following across the subcontinent, also will doubtless be enlisted to allege these counter-narratives to the Indian target market,” he added.
