Psychological warfare on social media our new threat: Rathore

In the backdrop of ongoing unrest in Kashmir, Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore today said "psychological wars" waged in cyberspace are the "new threat" of our times, and urged people to turn into "social media soldiers" to counter this new-age warfare.
"The world is changing. First there was traditional war, then nuclear war, and then limited intensity war (like Kargil). But, today's threat is of cyber war and through that psychological warfare. And, this psychological war is the biggest war," he said.
The Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting was addressing a gathering at a function organised by Jammu and Kashmir People's Forum to mark 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' at the Constitution Club of India here.

"Recently a terorist was gunned down in Kashmir like many other terrorists have been killed...And, talking about this psychological warfare which is being waged in the realm of social media, what followed on Twitter after that terrorist was shot dead...
"There were 1,25,000 tweets on that terrorist, out of which only 49,000 were from India, 52,000 from unknown locations and 10,000 from Pakistan," he said.
Rathore lauded the sacrifices made by soldiers and officers of the Army in Kargil war of 1999, but cautioned that nature and realm of warfare has now assumed different proportions.

"Therefore, I say, our soldiers are there on the front, but it's not adequate. We need thousands of people who can play the role of a 'sainik on social media' and also become soldiers," he said.

Recalling his Army days, Rathore recalled his experiences of Kashmir where he once had to "assume the look" of a terrorist to kill terrorists.
"We had no official orders but we realised the situation that our uniform would invite different kind of reactions. So we decided to assume the looks of terrorists, grew beard and shot them down," he said.
"Also, to gather gather intelligence, we used to use pen sketches. Because we never used to get photos of the most 'shatir' (cunning) terrorists.
"But those who are 'showman atankwadi', they meet with the same fate...Pamphlets are produced and then their photos are marked with a cross, like this 'do kauri' (worthless) terrorist (in Kashmir)," he said.

On Kargil anniversary, he paid homage to the soldiers and other men in uniform, who laid down their lives for the country.
Rathore said that Pakistan has a "deficit of democracy"
and there are several actors from the state to army, state as well.
He said that another point that the Prime Minister had made clear that Pakistan could itself face a rebellion and India would stand by the people of Baluchistan when they seek their rights.
"If they feel they can hit us, bleed us and martyr soldiers of ours they do not realise that our country is so strong that for every fallen soldier, you will have ten more stand up. For every family that suffers because of the husband, brother or father dying, the government and people will protect and support those families," Rathore said.

He also mentioned a bank account number on the Army website, which supports the families of soldiers who give up their lives.
Pakistan does not have the economic strength to look after the families of their slain soldiers.
Rathore said that in the last 10 years, no new weaponry was added to Indian forces but now Rafale aircraft along with meteor missiles are being brought in.
Rathore read out a note by Gen Ayub of Pakistan, former President of Pakistan in which he had told his Army chief that "as a general rule Hindu morale would not stand for more than a couple of hard blows delivered at the right time and place. Such opportunities should be sought and exploited."

Rathore said that while this was written sometime before the 1965 war, this has been the ethos on which the Pakistani state has operated.
At that time morale was low because of 1962 war, famine, unemployment and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had expired and there was a new Prime Minister.
Perhaps Pakistan thought this would be the perfect opportunity and added that it had started sending raids and thousands of troops much before the full fledged war started.
"And they say India started the war," Rathore said.
Later after the event, Rathore was asked on External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's speech in UN to which he said that he felt that she had driven the point home to Pakistan that it should stop day dreaming about Kashmir.

There are lot of human rights violations within your territory and India will be supportive of people who want their rights, he said.