[Reader-list] A Day of Doxological War

[pratap pandey]

 A Day of Doxological War
 May 27, 2002 

The war between India and Pakistan has not begun, yet. But within India, the war has begun.

 This war is happening in the apparently independent print and electronic Indian media, apparently independently of the "other" war, the real war. This is the Doxological War.

The Doxological War has mobilised armies of on-the-spot reporters; brigades of sponsors, and commercials breaks; battalions of broadcasting time; platoons of platonic (and not so platonic) Experts; and infantries of calm, shampooed- and gelled-hair, good-looking and expressionless newscasters.

 As the aforementioned newscaster – living up to his/her training, doing his/her job – speaks of war in a monotone, there runs simultaneously at the bottom of the screen a stream of events transformed into one-liners. Mimicking the stream of company stick prices in a stock exchange, these one-liners supplement the spoken words. They add a further, real-time dimension, to the TV screen and so add on to the already-incited Doxological War.

 n       9 injured in Grenade attack in a bus station at Anantnagar

n       Indefinite curfew continues in Godhra, Ahmedabad calm

n       Mulayam: India missing opportunity to teach lesson to Pakistan

n       Musharraf to address nation, may announce policy changes

n       Britain says sale of advanced Hawk Jet trainers on

n       Hizbul urges Pakistan to resist foreign pressure on Kashmir issue

n       10 Assam Rifles jawans killed in militant ambush in Manipur 

[Aaj Tak, afternoon and into the evening, May 27, 2002]

 As these one-liners stream on at the fringe of the TV screen, the Aaj Tak channel reporting news in the late afternoon of May 27, 2002, carries a report how one Asghar has been caught in Jaipur, Rajasthan. He has been caught on suspicion of bribing Army "personnel" and sending troop information to Pakistan. The newscaster disappears, to be replaced by a "spokesperson" of the "Khufiya Vibhaag", as the Aaj Tak channel likes to put it. This Khufiya Vibhaag Expert talks about how this Asghar, and by extension, "these people, terrorists", "they go to cybercafes, and send messages to the enemy". While talking about the fact that this Asghar received money through hawala channels and then went on to bribe
 at this point, while talking, the Expert coughs. It is clearly understand that soldiers in the Indian Army did manage to get bribed (perhaps high-ranking ones, for the Khu Vi spokesperson mentioned, in his narrative, that classified documents were involved), which is what this Expert was on the point of blurting out, then realised he shouldn't. And so stopped himself.     

As the one-liners keep incessantly streaming, Aaj Tak late in the afternoon of May 27, 2002, also carries a report on village terahgharia in West Bengal (?). Why this question mark? Because, as the report clarifies, this village lies on the border between Bangladesh and West Bengal (i.e. India). It is not, as the reporter, a young Bengali woman speaking very good Hindi, clarifies, that border stines have not been placed. (Here, her voice goes on voice-over as the camera focusses on a plinth-like concrete block). The problem is, that 3 sides of the village face West Bengal and the fourth, Bangladesh. These 3 sides get inundated in the rainy season. The fourth doesn't. Thus infiltrations from Bangladesh, presenting a grave security problem, can happen at any time.

 There is a twist here. When the 3 sides get inundated, access to the village can happen only by canoe-like boats (here, there is a shot of a canoe-like boat turning the corner of a water channel, young Bengali Aaj Tak woman reporter on board). If the boats don't reach the village with essential commodities, the village suffers.

 Why has this "feature" has been inserted into a 30-minute News broadcast (since it doesn't bear any relation to whatever's been said and shown before)?  Perhaps it is because the Doxological War is extremely arbitrary. Herein lies its reach, its ability to interpellate.

 n       Pakistan arrests a hardcore Chinese Terrorist

n       70,000 people affected by malaria in 12 districts of Assam, Central team to review situation

n       9 militants of National Democratic Front of Bodoland killed in an encounter in Bhubri district, Assam

 (Zee News, afternoon and into the evening, May 27, 2002]

 But let us turn away

But let us turn away from Television for the time being and look at India Today (Volume XXVII Number 22; for the week May 28-June3, 2002, released on May 27). The cover headline reads: "Operation Salami Slice." Is that a deliberate reference to pork? Can we sue this magazine? No it seems, on both counts.

 For one, it seems it is not a baldly racist reference. Don't we also get chicken salami nowadays? Moreover, the cover story text clarifies (on p22): 'A growing band of defence experts including those in the Government is now veering towards what in military terms is called a "salami slice offensive" (see graphic). Much like the way a chef chops salami, the idea is to rapidly capture small swathes of territory in PoK and hold them as a bargaining chip while signalling clearly that India didn't want the war to escalate to other areas.'

 Secondly, we cannot sue this magazine because this article, written by Raj Chengappa (a respected journalist, right?) and Shishir Gupta, is the Doxological War Happening. In the here and now. Textually organised. Presented as objective report, as Journalism, Journalism as independent as India itself. 

 It is immaterial that we are not told who this "growing band of defence experts" is. It is immaterial that we are not given any facts about "including those in the Government". It is immaterial that we don't know when such "military terms" were coined.

 Ignore the simile ("much like the way the chef chops salami"). Although this seals the lie, since ultimately the text has to resort to a figure of speech to transform its truth-claims into "truth", this is not even the tip of the iceberg.

 For, after this statement, the article plunges into an ideal scenario of war. In what follows, the war is already on. It does not matter that real war has not begun. This article goes to war, by itself, in the present tense, in a national English weekly:

 "The likely targets of such offensives (meaning the capture of small swathes of territory in PoK) are in the high mountains adjoining the the Uri sector or in the Poonch-Rajouri sector south of the Pir-Panjal"

 Now, Chengappa and Ghosh begin to revel in their fantasy (where the war has begun
is on):

 "Before such strikes are mounted, Pakistani army bunkers, artillery gun positions, ammunition dumps, supply lines, key communication facilities are detected through a surveillance network of satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles, reconnaissance aircraft and human intelligence. The offensive usually begins with heavy artillery shelling or a fire assault for 48 hours in the area of strike. "The idea is to exhaust the enemy's morale in the area of fire, knock out its artillery, command and control centres and disropt its supplies," says Lt-General (retd) Vinay Shankar, a former director-general of artillery"

 Let us pause here. The quote is a piece of classic Indian (I am tempted to say: Global eaducated Indian!) journalism. Whereas it is meant to buttress the story, it actually punctures it. That is because the text now begins to exist on two different registers: fantasy and fact. What sutures the two is the Doxological War, a fraught suturing between reality and fantasy, in which the latter wins out.

 The latter really wins out. Read the next para.:

 "On D-Day, to ensure that the area is "sanitised", Indian Air force fighters taking off from air bases in Udhampur, Srinagar and Pathankot would launch raids to knoccck the remaining pakistani fortification and gain superiority in the region. Air Chief Marshall (retd) A.Y. Tipnis, former chief of staff, saya air action is most effective for a degradation strike because it causes the "greatest damage" to the enemy's war-waging potential in the least possible time"

 The fantasy goes on. Read it for yourself. This article is not an article. It is a "reportorial". The reportorial (as in TV) is the genre through which War in the Abstract is explained, played out, created as an object of pleasure, for audiences. That is the purpose of the reportorial, the "relaying agent" of the Doxological War.

 What is the purpose of the Doxological War? It is to transform War in the Abstract into that cultural system called "common sense". And, nothing fulfills (or displays) that purpose than the hugely attractive Map that the India Today cover story carries on p22-23.

 See Graphic

 What is fascinating about the p22-23 Map is the manner in which terrorist camps have been pinpointed. Below the map is a summary of what India could do and what Pakistan might do (this element, that there might be resistance to attacks, is completely missing in the main story!). And in the map, a complete compendium of terrorist camps!

 Can we take this map to George Bush so that it is proved to him, once and for all, that Pakistan is a terrorist state? Can we use this map as proof (if we want to) of India's moral righteousness, of the "just" war Vajpayee and Advani have been thundering about?

 No, for the map is an unsourced one. Check out the credits to this Map. It says: "Graphics by NILANJAN DAS and YOGESH CHAUDHARY". What does this mean? What is the source of the information that has led to the making of this Map? What is its facticity? Is the Map real, or is it Imagimary?

 The map could be both. It could be real, in which case Pakistan does harbour terrorism. But it could also be Imaginary (since no source is given). In which case, Pakistan does not harbour terrorism.

 What wins the "D-Day" over here is the sheer pleasure of looking at a well-made graphic. Chengappa and Ghosh ride on this pleasure, which is the the pleasure of Doxological War.

 But let us turn away

 But let us turn away from the print media back to television.

 n       9 militants of National Democratic Front of Bodoland killed in an encounter in Bhubri district, Assam, arms and ammunition recovered

n       Pakistan catches chinese Islamist terrorist leader in PoK, extradites him to China

n       PM speaks to British PM Tony Blair, tells him Pakistan should translate words into action

n       British PM speaks to Pervez Musharraf on phone: says infiltration across border must stop

n       British High Commissioner and American Ambassador meet Brajesh Mishra Ahead of Musharraf's speech

n       Russian Deputy foreign minister is in Islamabad to discuss Russian proposal for talk between India and Pakistan

n       Japanese envoy to visit India and Pakistan in the next few days to urge restraint

n       Jyoti Basu: Sonia Gandhi has a better understanding of politics now

[STAR News, late afternoon till before Musharraf's speech, broadcast live 8 p m onwards, May 27, 2002]

 The one-liners stream on. Outside, a squall slowly gathers. The light grows faint. One doesn't know if it is because it is evening or because the clouds are playing with the light.

 I watch a JAIN TV broadcast for the fourth time. The reporter, one Satish Dwivedi, is talking about missiles. As Republic Day march past file shots of Indian missiles are shown, the reporter talks about how these missiles are indigenous, whereas the ones that Pakistan has are China-bestowed. The reporter is unequivocal about this. That is to say, the text he is clearly reading out is unequivocal about this. Not so Uday Bhaskar, the defense expert whose comments punctuate this report. Uday Bhaskar says "It is the opinion of some" that the missiles Pakistan has have been got from North Korea, "some say", and from China.

 Continuing on missiles, the reporter says that since the Indian missiles are indigenous, targeting them will not be a problem (since, ostensibly, the science that drives the missiles is also indigenous).

 Another Expert appears, sitting beside an active computer screen. This is Major General Asghar -- (couldn't get his last Name). He is confident. He reiterates the indigenous bit, and then says: they will send one missile, we'll send 5.

 S Dwivedi then dwells upon the possibility of a nuclear strike, via missiles. Their range is smaller, he says. In the event of a nuclear strike (both ways), he says: "India will be crippled, but Pakistan annihilated". (End of Report)

 n       Advani says India will remain firm on a decisive strategy towards Pakistan's undeclared war against India [STAR News, late evening, May 27, 2002]

n       Advani: India has to adopt another way to fight war declared by Pakistan [Aaj Tak, Afternoon, May 27, 2002]

 Whatever Advani said, one thing is chillingly clear: he said whatever he said while flagging off a Youth expedition to Ladakh, as part of "Sindhu Darshan".

 The Doxological War is being carried out on many different fronts. It is being carried out in the name of journalism. Professionals (Shuddha wouldn't like me to say: vetan-bhogis) are on these programmes: experts, creators of public opinion, carriers of cultural authority.  

 Just one day of Doxological War shows what supreme confidence is inherent to it. And all this before 8 pm, before Musharraf's speech.

 Yours,

pp

 PS:

n       Modi demands investigation into Lallo's daughter's wedding expenses [STAR News 1-line streamer, May 27, 2002]

n       Jyoti Basu says Centre should give autonomy to J&K [Aaj Tak 9 pm Headline, May 27, 2002]         

   Grenade attack on Anantpur bus station

 

 

 

 

 

 

  


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