15 September 2020
The news broke out that Chinese were monitoring the social media handles and accounts of several thousand prominent Indians, Australians and Americans yesterday. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-14/chinese-data-leak-linked-to-military-names-australians/12656668 At the heart of this Hybrid war as this is being touted is a company based in Shenzhen China ( that sounds like Schengen of EU) called Zhenhua Data. Again, while the Western democracies went into a tizzy as these data breaches were actually breaches of privacy of individuals who were in that Data tank of some 2.4 million individuals, most of them Chinese expatriates or people of Chinese origin, it was interesting to see in India the official spokespersons of the ruling BJP may light of it. It is only because the data includes Mr Modi’s estranged spouse and the First Citizen of India the President and Mrs Kovind too that I can say this that perhaps the IT Cell of the BJP was not quite in the know about the extent of this data for India, confusing it with their resource pool with which they routinely mount troll attacks. An analyst could even now assume that the BJP IT Cell must have wanted to keep tabs on their own to know if there was any breach of information indirectly in the accounts of their chosen as well as to camouflage the intent should this data theft or diversion ever go public one day as it did yesterday!
The company claims preliminarily that the data is like OSINT, what ever is on the public domain put out by individuals such as their names, next of kin details, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, meal preferences, religious outlook, political affiliations, only these are harvested and refined for use by any business that was willing to pay for the data so collected/mined and refined. However, disturbing details emerge of banking information and other information that is for Indian accounts available, which makes one suspect if the Digital India we have been coercing citizens to participate in is also sharing information or surreptitiously selling this extremely sensitive information. In any case, in given circumstances when Western media houses are describing this Zhenhua Data company as ‘Cambridge Analytica on Steroids’ and in light of concerns that China may launch a cyber blitzkrieg of sorts against Indian citizens as part of its novel 7th Column at the time of its choosing to bring about disaffection and distraction amongst key Indians at a time of its choosing, a serious review of Data collection and holding in India on behalf of Indian citizens needs the highest concern of Government and Parliament, not bland denials!
What most of the discussions so far do not get into is how blinding and unnerving it would be if key Indian military and strategic decisioning making personal were to get preoccupied with credit cards that don’t function, with their private emails getting hacked or diverted, with their mobile numbers getting screening with call drops, call transfers to other numbers or call blocks of select numbers, thus presenting them with a period of communications and financial uncertainty! After all, nothing can be bugging or bothering than if today we were to be made incommunicado to our beloved ones when we were on official tour, in office preoccupied with work, creating tensions at home and across work space due to communication uncertainty. If we can add failed ATM transactions, refused Credit Cards or Debit Cards at merchant kiosks, imagine how much pressure it can bring upon the officials and distract them from keeping their eyes & ears where they should be- on China’s machinations along the Himalayan borders?
We know that psychological warfare employs tactics that frequently involve shoring up own capabilities in the face of the enemy, which is as old as perhaps earliest human conflicts. From loud battle cries to grimaces and slapping of arms and thighs before combat to sophisticated propaganda films depicting deployment of troops with armaments and coordinated firing of various classes of weaponry, such choreographed viewing can make the enemy unnerved and get them thinking about capability asymmetry. Yet, Indians are not particularly susceptible to such propaganda because, by nature, fed by Indian film industry across regions, we know better than to trust any celluloid actions, especially those involving such fire and thunder moves! We have enough heroes and at times even heroines staging such superhuman stuff all the time for our entertainment!
So the naturally skeptic Indian gets even more skeptic when s/he gets to view such Chinese stuff. Then let us examine since we are on the subject of films how India has responded to Chinese films across the decades, from the martial arts and kung fu films to present versions of Imperial Chinese era. Unlike the Western audience to whom these films meant cultural aspects of the Chinese, Indians on average know that Indian Buddhist monks went to China and taught them their Karate or Kung Fu, whatever may be the actual truth of the origins of those martial arts. From time to time, Kollywood produces an ‘Indian’ on marma kala, ‘Ezham Arivu’ on old Indian linkage with Chinese culture, ‘Pattas’ ( based on martial art form Adimurai of antiquity) and so on. Many of these blockbusters are watched on dubbed format across India, particularly Kaman Hassan Starers Indian, Vishwaroopam 1 &2. Then came Bahubali 1&2 and now Indian cinegoers are even less likely to be persuaded by Chinese imperial stories on true HD or 4K! Apart from semantics about cinema, at a more civilisational level, Indians have more legend and mythology than all the Chinese can conjure, so any attempt at popular Marvel Comics style is likely to leave Indians unfazed at a psychological level.
That is precisely why the editor of Global Times Hu Xijin’s recent movie clips of PLA demonstrating choreographed war game moves, with warnings that PLA ‘is ready to strike a heavy blow to Indian troops’ was reported by Sputnik ( yes only old times will remember the glossy Readers Digest copycat from the Soviet Era) under the banner head that screamed: “ ‘Baby Boys Posting Video Games’: Indian Netizens Mock Clips Showing Chinese War Games.” https://sputniknews.com/india/202009141080451645-baby-boys-posting-video-games-indian-netizens-mock-clips-showing-chinese-war-games/ Of course some Indian veterans have a different take, as they worry about the effect this kind of flood of movies would have when it is shown repeatedly in regional TV news in India ( for which there is actually no evidence) or forwarded through WhatsApp( again for the concerns are not worthy of address for such propaganda stuff is routinely peddled by the IT Cell of the BJP or affiliated RW groups and they have no reason just now to peddle such PLA stuff). Actually, I found quite a few Indian handles on the social media platforms trying to create a war hysteria when the Chinese PLAAF lost a Su 30 fighter aircraft a week back, initially claiming that it was shot down over Taiwan by Taiwanese forceshttps://link.medium.com/VbpXwcHZM9. There are other handles that use these very Chinese propaganda films to do voice overs and lampoon the PLA preparations and pretend to be educating concerned Indian viewers. I can tell you what is going on…an attempt to portray that whatever is happening right now in Ladakh is selectively unprecedented, in that the Indian Military responses are apparently unprecedented this time alone, which is to basically boost the partisan BJP positions particularly of Mr Modi’s leadership in this confrontation. Instead of simply accepting that even Indians don’t take their PM seriously when it comes to China, that Indians now follow Chinese social media and get OSINT indirectly about Indian Army’s positionshttps://twitter.com/detresfa_/status/1305446470355615744?s=20, these ‘troll accounts of pretend patriots or partisan patriots’ are themselves getting fooled by their exertions! So when DW NEWS runs a programme where a Chinese expert uses Mr Modi’s assertion that China has not transgressed the LAC, https://youtu.be/wcZuryTFluc the Indian expert just smiles and lets it off, when Newsweek carries an article by Gordon G Chang who claims to be an ‘author, commentator, lawyer’ and the same is tagged by Gautam Chickermane, https://www.newsweek.com/chinese-army-flops-india-what-will-xi-do-next-opinion-1531170 you know what is the narrative that is being peddled, and it is so lame that it would fall flat on its own, save the conclusion that President Xi faced with a military stalemate could force a military option to retrieve himself. However, one found a Karan Thapar interview where the previous NSA https://twitter.com/gyansr/status/1305332118063439877?s=20 who is unusually informing him that it ‘appears the present situation is unique in that Indian military have not cross the LAC like previous situations and held ‘bargaining territory’!
I remember once Lt Gen Ata Hasnain had made a case for social media presence by Indian military through handles that could create a ecosystem where the military can reach out to citizens in times of war or exigency to thwart the psyops of China or Pakistan. Now I feel irony would not be lost on him, how these handles which appear to be ‘nationalist’ or ‘patriot’, which wear their military connections like badges of pride, which often relay ‘ball by ball’ commentary of ongoing encounters with terrorists in Kashmir, troop build up in Ladakh and insertion of aircraft and aircraft sorties over Ladakh in the last six months are outstepping their billing and actually creating credibility gaps for India’s Finest! These are the same handles who showed videos of Kashmiris straggled along rope chains after combing operations, corpses dragged along roads, or that famous jeep bonnet human shield, which added more controversy and sowed confusion rather than win any confidence about Indian military operating in these adverse Counter Insurgency conditions!
What India needs to do is have a rethink on these RW ‘pro Government’ or Pro BJP handles in the strategic space, because they are not helping. They make tall claims and come up short on ground, they even whip up hysteria at times that could add to paranoid responses of citizens on edge, which could wear off like the Shepherd Who Cried Wolf! What the Government hopefully will do as Parliament is in session is to offer to India through the MPs a clear picture all along the borders with China, briefing them about talks that are on going at various levels. It has always happened in the past, in 1962, 1967, 1986, 2013 and there is no reason at all why it should not happen now! If Indian polity closes ranks as the case was made exceptionally by both INC Spokespersons Mr Pawan Khera and Wing Commander Anuma Acharya ( Retired), the entire political spectrum is behind the military. As the average cyber netizen has shown too, no one is fooled by Chinese propaganda. However, government needs to come up with counters to data leaks that are possibly weaponised by the Chinese Cybercommand, by ordering key personnel to change their cyber footprints and to wall off from such exposure in the future!
indiarubberman.com 