Govt- BJP’s hype over LoC strike unsettling
It appears that the race among senior BJP and government leaders to milk the cross- Line of Control anti- terror strike of September 28- 29, hyped up as a “surgical strike”, for political gains is getting more pronounced, and shows few signs of abating. It began with the BJP’s top guns claiming the party had awakened the Indian Army like Hanuman, in the epic Ramayan, had opened the eyes of the forces that fought demonking Ravan. After our commando raid in which terror launchpads across the LoC were dismantled, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said it was to his party and the present government that went the credit of making the Army aware of its strength.
The defence minister went one better Monday. Speaking at the Nirma rural management institute in Ahmedabad, he proposed that it was the training imparted to him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the RSS that deserved kudos for ( conceiving) our Army’s cross-LoC incursion.
Perhaps realising the credit had been docked in the RSS’ account, he quickly made amends to suggest the Indian Army was “the best in the world” and therefore must not be questioned — as in his view the Opposition parties are doing — and should always be believed.
It’s hard to see where all this is coming from, but it was being assumed — naively — that being new to his present level of responsibility, and to the idea of an Army in a democracy, Mr Parrikar was just being overenthusiastic. But clearly the defence minister’s ludicrous observations seem anchored in a line of thinking whose articulation has been cleared at the highest levels.
And, really speaking, is there much that separates him and the Prime Minister? Speaking at Mandi in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday, Mr Modi said the Indian Army had become as lethal as the Israeli Army, drawing a comparison with communal undertones. While our soldiers deserve much credit for guarding the nation’s frontiers, even they may be embarrassed by now of the Army “puja” that’s been unleashed. With the Prime Minister throwing himself into the act, lesser mortals in the ruling establishment may now be expected to take up the cue. It’s now three weeks since the “surgical strike” but there is no slackening of the tempo in praise of the Army, the BJP and the RSS — the first for showing their paces and the politicos and the “culture” warriors of the RSS for guiding the way. Will this go on till the UP elections in February? In that case, the law of diminishing returns may set in. But worse, the deliberate politicisation of a serious national security concern exposes the saffron crowd to the charge of seeking to communalise our armed forces.
It began with the BJP's top guns claiming the party had awakened the Indian Army like Hanuman, in the epic Ramayan, had opened the eyes of the forces that fought demon- king Ravan