With two wars raging and propaganda flooding every screen, veteran journalist Nirendra Dev argues that the world’s real crisis is not military or economic — it is a collapse of honest leadership and the institutions that once held power to account
By NIRENDRA DEV
New Delhi, March 24, 2026 — The world is at war. Not one war — two. And beyond the battlefields, a quieter but equally destructive conflict rages: the war on truth itself.
What is happening to our world? It is a large question, and an uncomfortable one. But it must be asked — because history offers a consistent and sobering answer: nations and peoples have suffered most when those in power choose to ignore reality, surround themselves with loyalists, and mistake sycophancy for strength.
This is not an observation about Donald Trump alone, though his presidency offers vivid illustration. It applies broadly — to Putin, to Xi, to smaller autocrats in Hungary, Bangladesh, and beyond. Any leadership that thrives on the narrowest circle of loyal voices is already on a path toward institutional decay. The carefully managed image of stability is, in truth, a warning sign.
The real measure of leadership — the standard set by Mahatma Gandhi or the philosophy of Lord Buddha — is not the defeat of an opponent. It is winning him. In governance, it means protecting the common person’s interest even when power tempts otherwise. A genuine leader uses crisis not to consolidate control, but to rebuild institutions and restore public trust.
That task has never been harder. We live in a digital era where social media is more powerful than traditional journalism, where governments bypass editorial scrutiny through direct broadcasts, and where a WhatsApp forward carries more weight in millions of households than a carefully reported newspaper story. Media ethics, once a living discipline, now sounds like an artefact of a forgotten age. The BBC and All India Radio were once synonymous with truth. That certainty is gone — and leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have accelerated its erosion by attacking the very idea of impartial reporting.
Technology is not the villain — but it is a powerful amplifier of fear. Stoking fear is an old political instrument; the difference today is the range and speed of tools available to spread it. The war of narratives has become as consequential as any military campaign. And ordinary citizens, bombarded by distortion from every direction, cannot be blamed for losing their footing.
Yet here is what history also tells us: human endurance has limits. Propaganda exhausts itself. People tolerate injustice — but not indefinitely. The laws of cause and consequence do not suspend themselves for powerful men.
There remains, even now, a profound and unsatisfied hunger for honest information. No algorithm can manufacture it. No artificial intelligence can replicate it. That hunger is itself a form of hope — a reminder that truth, however battered, retains its power.
The question is whether any leader alive today has the courage to serve it.
(This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are author’s own.)
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