Jammu, August 18: Gone are the days when wars were fought either in designated battle fields or inside the cities with conventional arms and ammunition as the modern wars are fought more on cyber space than on ground with cyber space wars proving more fatal and accurate without any resistance.
The new warfare involves internet, telephony and other social media which is being effectively used by the government and non government forces all over the globe having cyber soldiers spread like a malicious internet virus hard to track.
The rise of Narendra Modi and fall of Congress in recent Lok Sabha elections is one of the fine examples of the war of votes being fought with conventional armory and the new social media. While Modi was able to put the social media to maximum use the Congress seemed confused and focused more on conventional politics thus losing badly at the battle front.
The latest entrant in this warfare in India are the militant groups and separatists operating in Kashmir who seem to have become new war lords of the social media giving a run to the conventional security forces due to their reach and untraceable locations.
What baffles the common man is that while Modi used the social media so effectively how come the Indian intelligence agencies are finding it difficult to deal with the new situation and finding themselves driven to wall instead of replying them in same manner and more effectively considering the enormous resources they have.
The Indian government, its security forces, and intelligence agencies must take a leaf out of Modi’s election campaign and learn to fight the new threat of cyber war with professionalism rather than the traditional lethargy of Indian bureaucratic system.
The buzz these days is how militant groups particularly the youngsters are using social media to recruit new militants in Kashmir particularly educated lot with security agencies feeling threatened but as of now no one seems to have thought how to use the same media for counter campaign instead of using the conventional methods like banning the media or blocking the pages which is not only ineffective but also time consuming.
The need of the hour is to think out of the box solutions and utilize the services of educated younger generation to seek new ideas and counter the militant campaign effectively as this cyber war can only be won if you use the same strategy rather than depending upon the government babus who have a closed-mind-strategy of the rule books to follow which is of no use in these modern times.
What the government needs to do is to go for fresh recruitment of hackers, computer professionals, experts in social media, facebook and WhatsApp addicts on contractual basis to fight this war without attaching the traditional strings of government service rules on them to see the results.
The American government and its intelligence agencies have been using such techie brats very often to solve complex modern day situations and even in formulating war strategies as far as modern technology is concerned.
Now with Modi going whole hog against old bureaucratic system and being a master of using social media it is only hoped that the lethargic Indian intelligence agencies and security forces are infused with the fresh blood of educated techies who may or may not have the relevant degrees to fight the modern war through modern means to give a befitting reply to the warlords of cyber warfare.