Social Media Becoming Source of Radicalisation, Says Army Chief

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat. 

(Photo: IANS)

Asserting that terrorism is becoming ‘a new form of warfare’, Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday, 9 January, that the menace is spreading like a "multi-headed monster" and is "here to stay" as long as states continue to use it as state policy.

Rawat, speaking at a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, also said that there was a need to control social media as it was becoming a tool to spread radicalisation.

“Radicalisation through social media is becoming one of the reasons for raising funds for terrorists organisations.”

General Bipin Rawat

He said a different kind of radicalisation was being witnessed in India, and in Jammu and Kashmir, the youth were getting radicalised due to a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and a lot of falsehoods on religion being fed to them.

"That is why you find more and more educated youth being drawn into terrorism," he said. Rawat said the biggest issue is social media ensuring that radicalisation does not happen through misinformation.

“Terrorism is here to stay as long as there are nations that continue to sponsor it as a state policy,” Rawat said, without naming Pakistan.

“Terrorism is becoming a new form of warfare. A weaker nation is using terrorists as proxy to put pressure on another nation to come to terms with it.”

General Bipin Rawat

“The phenomenon of terrorism is now spreading its head like a multi-headed monster,” Rawat said.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)