Fake news can cause disaster: Vice-President Dhankhar
“Information is power; information is too dangerous a power; information is that power which has to be regulated,” he said while interacting with a group of Indian Information Service (IIS) official trainees at the Vice-President’s Enclave.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar stressed the need to regulate information on Tuesday. He stated that unregulated information and fake news could create a disaster of “unimaginable proportions.”
“Information is power; information is too dangerous a power; information is that power which has to be regulated,” he said while interacting with a group of Indian Information Service (IIS) official trainees at the Vice-President’s Enclave.
Describing information as the most potent weapon and the fifth dimension of war, Mr. Dhankhar cautioned that “manipulative, divisive, and agenda-driven narratives peddled in our information space by proxies present a real danger to the sovereignty and integrity of our nation.” He asked officers to act rapidly to neutralise misinformation and save the privacy and reputation of affected people and institutions.
Sinister forces
Expressing concern over the floating of narratives to “taint, tarnish, diminish, and demean” government institutions by “misguided souls,” Mr. Dhankhar called for neutralising them at the earliest. “These sinister forces with a pernicious agenda are operating in small numbers in the country and outside. You are the warriors. The biased narrative created by the global media has to be blunted,” he said.
The Vice-President said India’s development narrative had to be made global. The IIS was well placed to sculpt and promote “Brand India” the world over. “Let the world know what kind of country we are. We are a country without a parallel; we are a country that has a rich cultural heritage and diversity. Our civilisational ethos has to be transmitted to the world,” he added.
Recognising that feedback from the ground helped formulate the right policies, the Vice-President advised the probationers to update themselves with the latest technologies. He praised IIS officials for their role in the recent Lok Sabha elections. “By increasing voter awareness and securing greater participation in the world’s largest democracy, by reaching out to the citizen, you have done admirably well,” he said.
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