{"id":475,"date":"2016-07-15T21:33:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T21:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=475"},"modified":"2016-07-15T21:33:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T21:33:53","slug":"the-agent-provocateurs-of-war-uri-attack-arnab-goswami-barkha-dutt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"The Agent Provocateurs of War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">A<\/span><\/p><\/div><p> little over a year into my burgeoning (or burning) journalism career with a top Lutyens media company in Noida\u2019s famed Film City, the wretched truth of big media hit me with the force of a billion Arnab kilotons: If Hafiz Saeed were to fall dead, a lot of our prime-time anchors would be out of jobs.\n\nTheir entire existence (already fading away in cultural relevance as most millennials don\u2019t watch TV news) would cease, if they couldn\u2019t blame Pakistan for the poor plumbing in Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s saffron bathroom.\n\nThe Uri attack has, of course, given them an actual reason to go batshit crazy. Once the Cassandra of doom started singing, out went stupid things like ethics and whatnot and in came backlash for our ears and logical reasoning.\n\nSuper Prime Time\u2122 began on Sunday night with India\u2019s biggest missile aka Assamese nuke Arnab Goswami, who got with him the Sehwag to his Sachin, TV legend GD Bakshi of \u201cCrying on News Panel\u201d fame.\n\nBakshi came in with all the fire of a right-wing intellectual and dropped some gyan bombs on the nation. \u201cLet\u2019s not descend to their level. We shouldn\u2019t launch covert strikes. We should tell our people this is what Pakistan did and this what we have done. Let the country see\u2026 The nation needs a catharsis, Arnab!\u201d\n\nGeneral Bakshi, imagining himself as the avenging hero of a masala Bollywood film, cried out loud. \u201cLet\u2019s take Pakistan up the escalator, till as far as it wants, till it cries UNCLE!\u201d\n\nThe nation wants Pakistan to cry \u201cUncle\u201d. That in a word sums up what some of our media thinks should be our defence strategy.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\nWhen the history of Indian broadcast news is written, Uri will go down as the day news channels gave themselves a wedgie. On his comically titled 20-minute show \u201cIndia First\u201d, Gaurav Sawant started his Monday with a package and the following voiceover, \u201cWhile media organisations speculate on how India should respond, India Today gets you the solid facts. A four-point inside view of PM Modi\u2019s actual thought process from top sources in the security establishment.\u201d\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>What news television in India has been doing since the Uri attack is playing the role of a deadly agent provocateur.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nThen they nicely laid out India\u2019s response strategy (What could go wrong?), with a defence expert who proclaimed, \u201cThis is an act of war. India\u2019s reaction should also be the same,\u201d even as he beamed widely.\n\nClearly, media jingoists have concluded that the attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has thrown a direct challenge to India and it has to be \u201ctaught a lesson\u201d, quick and harsh. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear. Nothing less will quench the thirst that the nationalist media seems to have for revenge. Hit the button, they yelled in unison. Just hit the goddamn button!\n\nThe temptation to ignore Arnab and his army is high but it\u2019s dangerous. What news television in India has been doing since the Uri attack is playing the role of a deadly agent provocateur. They are not only building expectations of a fitting government response that loosely resembles the plot of a Bollywood movie, but it is also fanning public sentiment and thus closing off a more calibrated approach where the government may decide to bide time before a strike back.\n\nForeign and defence policy decisions are taking place but not at the speed and bravado that will make our TV anchors happy. The options may be both covert and overt responses, offensive strikes, defence strengthening, economic action, or diplomatic pressure but none of them is the stuff that Bollywood movies are made of. These are not overnight reactions \u2013 they may play out over a three- to five-year term, perhaps longer. Each of these options will have repercussions, not just military but also political, diplomatic, and economic \u2013 which will need to be taken into account before exercising them.\n\nHowever, desh bhakt extraordinaire and human condom Sudhir Chaudhary had another plan. On his show DNA, in between retweeting fans calling themselves \u201cDNA addict\u201d, he said that we can counter terrorism if we stopped burying or cremating terrorists and just burnt their bodies with our garbage.\n\nSo all we needed to do all this while was to scare terrorists by telling them we won\u2019t respect their bodies after they\u2019re dead?\n\n*slow claps*\n\nSurprisingly, it was \u201canti-national\u201d NDTV\u2019s Barkha Dutt who had perhaps the most seminal moment of the night as she opened her show with a tribute to the martyred, stressing upon the loss their families have to bear. But probably not many saw it, as Arnab\u2019s voice box towered over our collective prime-time conscious.\n\nWar mongering at godly decibel levels will always grab eyeballs and with the bonuses of our TV scribes dependent on TRPs, even a whiff of a war is good for business.\n\nCan someone tell them to shut up please? We don\u2019t want a freaking war. Just make do with Hafiz Saeed, will you please?\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Agent Provocateurs of War<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Agent Provocateurs of War\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parthshri Arora\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Agent Provocateurs of War\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parthshri Arora\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Parthshri Arora\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c\"},\"headline\":\"The Agent Provocateurs of War\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475\"},\"wordCount\":857,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1474365416.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"POV\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475\",\"name\":\"The Agent Provocateurs of War\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1474365416.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c\"},\"description\":\"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1474365416.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1474365416.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?p=475#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Agent Provocateurs of War\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c\",\"name\":\"Parthshri Arora\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parthshri Arora\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=82\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Agent Provocateurs of War","description":"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Agent Provocateurs of War","og_description":"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Parthshri Arora","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"The Agent Provocateurs of War","twitter_description":"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parthshri Arora","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475"},"author":{"name":"Parthshri Arora","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c"},"headline":"The Agent Provocateurs of War","datePublished":"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475"},"wordCount":857,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","articleSection":["POV"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475","url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475","name":"The Agent Provocateurs of War","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-15T21:33:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c"},"description":"Media jingoists have concluded that the Uri attack calls for a tit-for-tat response. Pakistan has to be taught a lesson. There must be retribution. And it must be nuclear.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","width":1280,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=475#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Agent Provocateurs of War"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/180b81cbbbd9f5079a562ca43e45cb9c","name":"Parthshri Arora","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/51d717e940900e9db49b49678c826ac576e4b0538ad5da11ba762a9fd0137b36?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parthshri Arora"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=82"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1474365416.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}