Hyper realism is characterised by depiction of real life in an unusual or striking manner. The rise of hyper realism coincided with the development of photography. It entered into wider currency when American photo-realists of the 1960s and ’70s sought to “immortalise photographic imagery by faithfully capturing their precision and detail in paintings and realistic drawings.” However, by the early 2000s, hyperrealists were using advancements in high-definition photography as a jumping-off point into expressions of false realities that continue to astonish and amaze art lovers all over the world.

To put it simply, one can say that hyper-reality is seen as a condition in which the real and the fiction are seamlessly blended in such a way that the distinction between where one ends and the other begins is blurred. This allows a co-mingling of physical reality with virtual reality (VR) and human intelligence with artificial intelligence (AI).

In South Asian setting, the best illustration of hyper-reality is the reporting and comments on Pulwama incident, in the Indian held Kashmir. The recent Goswamy-Dasgupta leaks have proved the point to the hilt. From the killing of 40 security personnel to the surgical strikes killing 350 Jaish-i-Muhammad operatives, the reports were orchestrated by Narendra Modi and his acolytes and made to look like spontaneous developments.

Very many Indians believed that hyper-reality without casting a doubt. Now that the story has proven a concoction, the Modi-led government is as obdurate in its position regarding its stance on Kashmir and its (mis)demeanor towards Pakistan. Before drawing any definitive conclusion, let’s turn our attention to the way the story was flashed in the media and disseminated through TV channels that featured foul-mouthed and trash-talking anchors like Arnab Goswami.

On February 14, 2019, a convoy of 78 vehicles transporting more than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel from Jammu to Srinagar was travelling on National Highway 44. The convoy had left Jammu at around 3pm. The convoy was scheduled to reach its destination before sunset. At Lethpora near Awantipora, a around 3:15pm, a bus carrying the security personnel was reportedly rammed by a car carrying explosives.

Initial investigations suggested that the car was carrying more than 300 kilogrammes (660 lb) of explosives, including 80 kilogrammes (180 lb) of RDX, a high explosive, and ammonium nitrate. It caused a blast that killed 40 CRPF personnel of the 76th Battalion and injured many others. The suicide bomber was identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, a 22-year-old from Kakapora (in Pulwama district).

According to Dar’s parents, Dar became radicalised after he was beaten by the Indian police. Between September 2016 and March 2018, Adil Dar had been arrested six times by the Indian authorities.

India then revoked Pakistan’s most-favoured nation trade status. Customs duty on all Pakistani goods imported to India was raised to 200 percent. The government of India urged the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) to put Pakistan on the blacklist. A delegation of Indian doctors cancelled their visit to Pakistan for the 13th Association of Anesthesiologists Congress, organised by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in Lahore on March 7.

Indian broadcaster DSport said it would no longer broadcast Pakistan Super League cricket matches. The All India Cine Workers’ Association announced a ban on Pakistani actors and artists in the Indian film industry and stated that strong action would be taken against any organisation violating it. The Indian Film and Television Directors’ Association also announced a ban on Pakistani artists in films and music produced in India; the president of the organisation threatened to “vandalise” the sets of any Indian film production with Pakistani artists.

Former Indian cricket players and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) called for the boycott of the 2019 World Cup group match fixture between India and Pakistan, raising concerns of a possible ban on Pakistan cricket team from playing in the 2019 Cricket World Cup tournament. However, after holding a press meet in Dubai, the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected the BCCI’s statement regarding banning Pakistan from the World Cup and assured that the scheduled match will go ahead as planned despite the ongoing stand-off between the two nations.

On February 26, twelve Mirage 2000 jets of the Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and dropped bombs on Balakot, Pakistan. India claimed that it had attacked a Jaish-i-Muhammed training camp and killed a large number of terrorists, reported to be between 300 and 350, a ridiculously fake claim. All Indian Air Force could truthfully claim was some harm to the trees. Pakistan quickly scrambled jets and IAF jets dropped their payloads to quickly return across the LoC.

A dogfight resulted in the destruction of a couple of Indian aircraft; an Indian pilot was captured and roughed up by local people. The Pakistan Army rescued him and in an extraordinary gesture of hospitality offered him a cup of tea before he was allowed to return to India. A lot about the episode turned out to be mere fabrication.

The leaked Arnab Goswami WhatsApp chats have laid bare the sinister designs hatched by the Modi government to blame Pakistan for the false Pulwama attack, followed by a botched air strike on Balakot in February 2019. A 500-page document carrying chats exchanged between Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, the former chief executive officer of Broadcast Audience Research Council, have revealed damning information about Goswami‘s close ties with the Prime Minister’s Office and several members of the government.

These chats revealed that Goswami had information about some of the events, including the Balakot attack, three days before it happened. Indian social media regarded these chats as a clear indication that Narendra Modi had played with the lives of Indian soldiers to get public sympathy and votes for the 2019 elections.

The leaked chats have raised a storm in India where many journalists, anchorpersons, bloggers and noted personalities have criticised Modi and his government for staging a false attack on Indian soldiers and blaming Pakistan for it to secure a BJP victory in elections. Rahul Mukherji, a member of the Indian intelligentsia, tweeted, “There was never any doubt that Pulwama was an insider job. And now it’s proven.”

After the chat leaked, the reactions of Bollywood stars, cricketers, doctors and TV anchors have proved naive. Yet, these people keep tweeting in condemnation of the farmers protesting for their rights. Such is the power of hyper-reality and the terror instilled in the Indian masses by Hindutva and its operatives. Should this go on, all that can be said with certainty about India as a polity is that what lies ahead is disaster.

The writer is Professor in the faculty of Liberal Arts at the

Beaconhouse National University, Lahore