The Vice President, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar today underlined the need to regulate the information highlighting that unregulated information and fake news can create havoc or disaster of un-imaginable proportion. “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 officer trainees at the Vice President’s Enclave today.

Praising social media responses by state actors for effectively countering the manipulated and false information, VP asked the young officers to act with lightning speed to neutralize misinformation. “You have to nip the fake news in the bud,” he told them.

Noting that such misinformation can be ruinous for an institution or an individual, Shri Dhankhar asked “who protects the individual if there is a fake narrative set afloat on social media about an individual?” Describing the officer trainees as information warriors, he asked them to play on the front foot and save the privacy and reputation of the affected person or institution.

Describing India as the most vibrant democracy in the world, VP said that legitimacy of a government depends on the amount of trust people have in it. “As IIS officers, you are enjoined and equipped to act as a bridge between citizens and their elected government,” he said.

Expressing concerns over the worrisome trend of floating of narratives to taint, tarnish, diminish, and demean our institutions by some “misguided souls”, VP called for neutralizing them at the earliest. “These sinister forces with pernicious agenda are operating in small number in the country and outside. You are the warriors,” he told the young officers.

Calling for effective countering of motivated narrative set afloat by global media, VP said that we must never allow others to calibrate us. “Global media setting biased narrative has to be blunted,” he stressed.

Emphasizing the need to take India’s development narrative globally, Shri Dhankhar said that Indian Information Service is rightly placed to sculpt and promote “Brand India” globally.  “Let the world know what kind of a country we are. We are a country without a parallel; we are a country that has a rich cultural heritage and diversity. Our 5000 years civilization ethos required to be known to the world,” he addede.

Noting that misinformation has emerged as a very big threat to peace, stability and is a challenge to democracy in an age of information revolution, the Vice President highlighted that such misinformation leaves great impact on our security and defence mechanism. Describing information as the most potent weapon and the fifth dimension of war, Shri Dhankhar cautioned that “manipulative, divisive and agenda driven narrative peddled in our information space by proxies present a real danger to the sovereignty and integrity of our nation.”

Recognizing that right feedback from ground helps in formulation of right polices, VP advised the probationers to update themselves with the latest technologies. The Vice President also praised the Indian Information Service officers for their role in recent Lok Sabha elections. “Increasing voter awareness and securing the greater participation in the world’s largest democracy by reaching out the citizen at the very last mile, you have done admirably well,” he said.

Shri Sunil Kumar Gupta, Secretary to the Vice President of India, Shri Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Dr Anupama Bhatnagar, Director General, IIMC, Delhi, Shri C Senthil Rajan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, senior officials and officer trainees of 2022 & 23 batches attended the event.

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MS/JK/RC