Some readers ask how my columns about the larger info ecology and about social networks are connected to the journalism of this paper. When the federal government stops working to deliver, it develops numerous methods to deflect the attention of the people from scrutinising its functions. The deflections may differ from waging a full-fledged war to demonising neighbouring countries. Social network is used to handle headings and amplify false information. A couple of recent complaints regarding this newspaper’s reportage on restored militancy in Kashmir and border skirmishes with China plainly fall into this classification.
Piercing the story
Before clearing their doubts, let me share a personal story. 20 years earlier, I was Bureau Chief of Outlook magazine when it broke the story, “Command Failure”. The report described that the 1999 war with Pakistan took place as the military and political leadership did not take cognisance of the prompt cautions of the male on the ground, Brig Surinder Singh, commander of the Kargil-based 121 Brigade. The report widely varied from the story that the then National Democ