The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska should have been straightforward: two strongmen, one frosty stage, and a backdrop symbolic of contested frontiers. Instead, it unraveled into a carnival of conspiracy, much of it spun not in Moscow or Washington but in New Delhi’s newsrooms.
Within hours of the first handshake, Indian anchors breathlessly declared that the man across from Trump was not Putin at all but a Kremlin decoy — a double dispatched to bewilder global intelligence agencies. Some insisted the “real” Putin was holed up in a bunker; others claimed he was skiing in Siberia; one primetime panelist went so far as to suggest he had been replaced by Russian AI, programmed to outstare Trump.
The frenzy carried echoes of the infamous 1948 “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline — only now it read like: “Putin Defeats Putin.”
Trump, never one to miss a stage cue, mocked the speculation. “Frankly, I’ve met many doubles — I’ve got three myself — but this guy was the real Putin. Strong handshake, very real. Believe me.” His quip only fueled more fevered graphics on Indian channels, which alternated between shadowy silhouettes of Putin clones and Bollywood-style spy re-creations, complete with dramatic soundtracks.
For a media landscape already chastised by The Washington Post for its flood of false reports about Pakistan, the Alaska spectacle laid bare just how deeply misinformation has become show business. What should have been a sober geopolitical dialogue became a masala thriller, scripted live on air.
As one weary Indian fact-checker sighed, “The summit wasn’t East versus West. It was Truth versus TRP ratings — and truth lost again.”
By the end of the week, Indian primetime resembled less a newsroom and more a circus audition, with anchors moonlighting as stand-up comics, psychic mediums, and Cold War historians rolled into one. One channel unveiled a “Putin-o-Meter” (a spinning wheel that alternated between “Real,” “Fake,” and “Alien”), while another staged a mock trial cross-examining a cardboard cutout of the Russian president. The absurdity hit warp speed when a third channel solemnly reported that Martians had landed in Alaska to referee the summit — only to run B-roll of a Bollywood UFO scene as “exclusive footage.” When fact-checkers tried to intervene, they were outshouted by graphics declaring “BREAKING: TRUTH UNDER REVIEW.” In the end, the Alaska summit proved one thing beyond doubt: no matter who shakes hands in history, Indian television will always find a way to turn geopolitics into a galactic soap opera.
