BJP: Fascism in the garb of patriotism

Politics over appropriation of patriotism is going on in full swing in India, currently gripped by high election fever. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh and the controversial retired Army Gen. VK Singh have bombarded the Union government recently for failing to address the legitimate concerns of the armed forces. Gen. Singh, himself accused of spying on civilians arbitrarily defying all norms while in office, was all the more livid about the way the Congress-led UPA government managed the country for the last 10 years.
Ironically, Gen. Singh found the BJP to be the only political outfit in India capable of upholding the country’s core national interests. By doing so, Gen. Singh, now fishing in troubled political waters, has chosen to undermine the very fraternity that he once represented in his previous incarnation of a uniformed soldier. Or how else can he ignore the abject failure of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in securing the country’s borders? Does the esteemed general really believe that he can rescue the party that he has currently taken refuge in by his unctuous and ostentatious utterances? NDA government failed to prevent usurpation of large chunk of territories in the Indian-administered Kashmir by armed intruders due to a mysterious security lapse immediately prior to a make or break election in 1999. How did Gen. Singh, then a serving officer, reacted when grim-faced officials of the army received coffin after coffin draped in tricolor?
Did he not know that the professional assessment of the army clearly mentioned the strategic disadvantages with which the soldiers will be forced to work if they are asked to retaliate? Vajpayee did not take the final call for escalation willingly as he knew that there would be heavy casualties on India’s side. But then Vajpayee grudgingly adhered to the diktat of the hard-liners in his party that Narendra Modi nowadays represents. Hence, mostly young pass-outs from the military training institutions were chosen to face an uphill task that too without obtaining adequate work exposure. Was it ethically correct? Will Gen. Singh or for that matter BJP President Rajnath Singh also have the temerity and honesty to declare how many air accidents involving military aircraft took place under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s premiership?
A sizeable number of pilots and aircrew, representing the air force, army, navy and even the Indian Coast Guard, sacrificed their lives in the line of duty during the supposedly super-patriot NDA regime with the government doing virtually nothing to stem such human and material loss. Not many are aware that these brave hearts who perished and remained unacknowledged and unsung — except in the memories of their loved ones — were victims of the 166 big and small accidents and losses that were reported between March 21, 1998 and May 19, 2004. And the BJP was in power at the center from March 19, 1998 to May 22, 2004. Going by Singh’s logic, are we to presume that a tall and highly revered political personality like Vajpayee was actually lacking in nationalistic fervor? And that he deliberately remained a mute witness even as successive flying machines went down with their crew intermittently? Moreover, the NDA government did absolutely nothing to speed up the process of indigenization of defense production and instead favored Israeli armament manufacturers for supply of critical defense hardware to India. Israel, in fact has been a loyal votary of a BJP-led government in India because policymakers in Tel Aviv felt that this will stand them in good stead so far as the country’s strategic interest in South Asia is concerned. Very few officials in the Indian security establishment will ever acknowledge that the Israeli and Indian intelligence actually undertook some highly classified secretive missions deep inside the Pakistani territory jointly during Vajpayee’s tenure. Luckily, Yehoyada Haim, who served as an Ambassador in New Delhi from 1995 to 2000, has gone on record acknowledging Israel’s direct involvement in the Kargil conflict of 1999 and on other occasions to contain what they and the Indian security paraphernalia perceives to be “Islamic terrorism.” Bolstering this claim is the testimony of Col. Shrikant Purohit, a Samjhauta Express blast perpetrator and an important member of a saffron terror organization. In his own words “our captains have been to Israel and there has been a very positive response from their side.” Shockingly, in spite of all these revelations coming to the fore, Gen. Singh has found it appropriate to join the same political ideology for nation building. The commonality between the Hindu nationalist BJP and Israelis lies in their perception of regional geopolitics and terrorism and harboring of deep antipathy toward Muslims in general, conceded a highly placed official of the Vajpayee government — dealing with national security issues — in a private conversation years ago. Does the retired general not know that India’s unique and diverse socio-cultural mosaic calls for an egalitarian society and a truly secular government that can provide distributive justice to the people of all faiths? Unfortunately, his favorite political party, the BJP’s trumpeted nationalism is far-off from the concept of liberalism and social justice propagated by the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution. Gen. Singh has given a clarion call to the extended defense fraternity and their families to boldly support the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Will the family of Kargil Martyr Capt. Hanifuddin or those who believe in the apolitical and secular nature of the military fall in line?

- Seema Sengupta is a Kolkata-based journalist and columnist.
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