Beyond Operation Sindoor: New Warfare, New Challenges

Pakistan has been employing its assets in the foreign lands to create fake narratives against Bharat. This includes nourishing the NGOs, activists and also hiring lobbying firms to create narratives against Bharat.

- Divyansh Kala

Recently, during and post-Operation Sindoor, the use of the word fifth column got attention in the strategic terminology of Bharat. The Operation Sindoor also signifies the fact that the format of war is evolving.

The basic difference of Operation Sindoor with the past retaliatory actions is that it blends kinetic weapons with cyber disruptions, drone surveillance and psychological-information warfare. However, with the arrest of Bhartiya Citizens such as Jyoti Malhotra and Noman Ilahi, a network of Pakistani agents working against the Bhartiya interests from within have exposed a network which in strategic terms is referred to as Fifth column.

According to the Britannica dictionary, Fifth Column refers to a "clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity by any means at their disposal."

The term fifth column is said to be coined during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) by the nationalist General Emilio Mola Vidal, as four of his columns moved to Madrid and Vidal referred to his militant supporters within the capital as 'Fifth Column'. A cardinal technique of the fifth column is the infiltration of sympathizers into the entire fabric of the nation under attack and, particularly, into positions of influence. From such places, fifth-column activists exploit the fears of a people by spreading rumors and misinformation, as well as by employing the more standard techniques of espionage and sabotage.

In the changing landscape of technology and enhanced multipolarity of the world, the format of warfare has also evolved. Now the war is not only fought in the physical battleground, but the fight is also to alter the observational context of the people of a country through means of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation campaigns.