It was in Mahabharata war that Guru Drona, who was fighting from Kaurava's army, was proving to be a tough contender for Pandavas, after all, he was the formidable warrior, Guru, Who had imparted all the key skills of warfare among Pandavas and Kauravas.
To get over the challenge Lord Krishna suggested a way to get rid of Drona. Since Drona possessed immense powers and knowledge of weapons, only Arjun, who was his favorite student and prodigy, can defeat him. However, Arjuna could only do it if Guru Drona was unarmed.
Lord Krishna suggested, the only way to overpower Drona was that if he is told that his dear son Ashwathhama, who was also participating in Mahabharata, was dead. Hearing this Drona would go weak and will either give up fighting or commit a mistake and then Arjuna will be able to kill him.
The plan was communicated to Pandavas, however, Arjuna declined to use unfair means to kill Drona. In a war between right and wrong, to establish truth and dharma, it was important to kill Drona.
Lord Krishna convinced the Pandavas to kill an elephant who was the namesake of Guru Drona’s son Ashwathhama and announce the news of his death in the war, such that Guru Drone listens to it. The person who was assigned to communicate the news was Yudhishtir. Yushishtir had a reputation of a just person who never lied. Even the enemies swore of his just nature.
As per the plan, Bhima killed the elephant and Yudhishtir announced “Aswathhama Hatha (and then he murmured) iti Narova Kunjarova”, meaning Ashwathhama is dead, not sure if its elephant or a man. Hearing this Drona was grief-stricken and gave up the fight. That was the moment when Arjuna killed Guru Drona.
I find this story very relevant even today. Only the characters have changed and now Mahabharath is Information warfare. The recent example is a kind of messages floated on social media channels like FB, WA, Twitter, etc created a vicious social environment after implementation of CAA, followed by Delhi Riots and spread of Corona Virus pandemic. I was surprised to see some extremely misleading information circulated about these very sensitive topics to provoke people. This information was spread by some very educated and qualified people like people of repute on one hand to the students of reputed universities. However, the difference was that it was nowhere a dharma yuddha (battle to establish truth & justice) they were fighting. What they spread was absolutely false.
Many worked with an agenda to bring the government of the day on knees because of ideological reasons or their allegiance to other political ideologies. The medium of social media was used extensively to fan emotions that resulted in creating confusion and chaos. The same goes for spreading the news about the coronavirus pandemic. Most of us fall prey to news as Guru Drona did.
SM has given us immense power, which enables us to transmit anything from one corner of the world to the other corner in seconds, what’s dangerous is that it’s been done in a most irresponsible manner by the people blinded with their religious and political prejudice or beliefs.
I read a post on FB which implied misusing public money by governments and so leaving less of it for stimulus to safeguard the economy from COVID 19 risk. Other posts backing & praising a nation famous for its expansionist attitude. The post was malicious, misleading, and a propaganda piece as the author had no way to substantiate his claim. This post didn’t even qualify as a joke or a satire. It was a bad joke if the author of the post intended to make one.
So, what should one do to ensure we prevent ourselves from falling prey to such propaganda? I will suggest some simple measures.
Caution: I would analyze a post on the basis of the following:
Messenger: Observe, who has posted the message? Is he/she an expert on the matter? Does he/she have an understanding of the subject? It too can be very misleading as a lot of educated people give in to the false news and react. This can be because they know the person, his educational background, or simply because he/she is posting something which you too believe in. for me even if all of the above is true about the messenger, I would love to reason and identify the real source. Even if it’s Yudhishtir, I would not give him benefit of doubt before verifying.
Message: What is the message? I observe the claims being made in the message. Does it sound realistic? Is there anything available which substantiate the information? Where is it emerging from? I would also read the message between the lines to understand the hidden/implicit message in it. A lot of messages like Garlic cures COVID19 or the certain murder/lynching was due to racist/casteist bias etc may harm more if believed. Just because the message is coming from someone we know should not be trusted or believed.
Receiver: The third aspect is the intended receiver. In Mahabharata, the message was for Guru Drona, since it had an emotional appeal for him. It was about his son and it actually did the effect. Let’s figure out if we are the target audience of the message and what action the message is expecting us to take?
Why not ignore the message which sounds misleading instead of reacting to it and getting into a tussle with the transmitters? By paying attention to such propaganda and reacting to it we would actually help it spread.
In this information Mahabharata, where there are portals which project themselves as neutral but work on a certain agenda, there are fake accounts which incite emotions, there are the well-qualified individual who misuses their qualification, social image to spread false news, we must not allow ourselves to be a Drona - the victim of information warfare, because the one decimating the information too is not a Yudhishtira – the warrior of truth. First, think and then react
