Picture this: a social media post is circulated (by the usual suspects), which says that Pakistan is ranked number one in the world as far as citizens leaving a country and emigrating overseas is concerned. Of course, the fact that this is factually incorrect is not important. India ranks number one in such countries, with Pakistan coming in sixth or seventh. However, our thriving WhatsApp Universities ensure that this ‘news’ is quickly spread far and wide and play a key role in amplifying what is often incorrect and misleading information, if not outright disinformation and fake news. Of course, the push for a narrative, despite its vastly changed global standing this year, and especially post-Sindoor, takes all kinds of forms and nuances. And again, it is not just the Government of India, or the BJP’s social media trolls and their like who are invested in spreading this; unfortunately, this also finds many takers who happen to be Pakistanis, but who are quite content to push it.

Of course, most of these people happen to follow a particular political party and are more concerned with the trials and tribulations of the party leader than with what direction the country is heading. Their primary concern is his safety and release, and everything else can come later.

This particularly warped, I would say brainwashed, way of seeing the world, and in particular, ar Pakistan, shapes their worldview and everything that happens passes through that (dis)coloured lens. Let’s take the case of the recent report that the famous American........

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