PERILS OF AN UNCHECKED NARRATIVE

ACCORDING to some scholars, the worst tragedy in human history was an outcome of a misleading media narrative.

- PRAVEEN CHAKRAVARTY

Responding to the Allied Forces’ terms of surrender in July 1945, Japan’s prime minister used the word ‘mokusatsu’ to mean ‘silence’. Western media mischievously interpreted it to mean ‘ignore’. Enraged, the US president decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki to devastation. It triggered a nuclear arms race that the world is still suffering from.

Misleading narratives in quest for sensational headlines can wreak havoc. The 2025 Bihar election outcome is a case in point. Nearly every political leader and policymaker in the country believes that the cash scheme of ₹10,000 to a woman in every family, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just two months before the election, was the game-changer.

As a result, this will further intensify the race among parties in other states to distribute ‘cash for women’ in the belief that it is the magic bullet. This competitive populism can send the entire nation spiraling down a path to eventual fiscal catastrophe, political emptiness, and social disorder. Worse, this is a false narrative much like the ‘mokusatsu’ misinterpretation.