Rising Hindutva, sycophancy in civil and military services, Muslim icons renamed
By Amjed Jaaved
Hindutva (Hindu-ness) is the ideology promoted by fanatic Hindus. The extremist Hindus believe that all communities living in India have Hindu/Indu/Indus DNA. The Rashtraya Swayemsevak Sangh (National Volunteers Organisation), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), Bajrang Dal and the Bharatya Janata Party promote the story of the Hindu god Ram as narrated in the Ramayana as the basic Hindu text. But, they overlook the fact that Ramayana itself is a testament to plurality or diversity.
There are over 800 versions of the Ramayana. Damodar Savarkar in his book Hindutva defines ‘Hindutva’ as ‘Hindus being a nation (rashtra), bound by a common culture (Sanskrit), a common history, a common language, a common country and a common religion (Hindu dharma).
Politicisation of the armed forces
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s macho image (56-inch chest, surgical strikes, gung-ho anti-Pakistan rants, etc) catapulted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral wins. The sycophant military officers adopted a policy of preferring extremist Hindu military officers over those with a moderate turn of mind.
Bipin Rawat superseded two senior generals to become COAS. In 2019, setting aside seniority principle Modi named Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the next Chief of Naval Staff prompting Vice Admiral Bimal Verma, the officer who had been superseded, to appeal to the Armed Forces Tribunal.
During the UP election, pictures of Director General Military Operations, and the strapping of Sikh Lt Gen Ranbir Singh were emblazoned on banners and posters alongside pictures of Modi and Amit Shah for the first time in the history of India’s elections. This was in stark violation of the Election Commission’s SOPs. The BJP benefitted a lot from the hype spun around the “mythical” success of the “surgical strikes” in early 2016, the Uttar Pradesh elections and the 2019 general elections.
Modi ki Sena (Modi’s armed forces)
The BJP leaders referred to armed forces as “Modi ki Sena” during election campaigns.
The 60-year-old autonomous Institution of Defence Studies and Analyses was prefixed with the name of former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. It carried Modi’s pictures on flyers.
Bipin Rawat who died in a helicopter crash was controversially promoted to chief of the Indian Army and later as the chief of defence staff. Four retired Indian armed forces officers with marked anti-Pakistan mindsets were appointed as governors and deputy governors of Indian states and union territories. They included Lieutenant General Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik (retired), Governor of Arunachal Pradesh; Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands; former Deputy Chief of the Indian Army Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh, Governor of Uttarakhand, and Brigadier B D Mishra (retired), Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh region of India occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian army chief, in his latest interview, gave“a landmark talk on China”. reported ”Strangely, the Army Chief pitched the talk at the political level, which ordinarily should have been covered by a political leader or a senior diplomat, or perhaps by Jaishankar himself, whose identity is conflicted between the two.
Admiral Arun Prakash, a former Indian Navy chief, lamented obsequiousness and servility within the services, especially the army.
He stressed that the ‘evil of sycophancy will undermine the roots of India’s military’ unless the senior leadership curbs it ruthlessly.
Effacing Muslim history
To glorify Hindu icons, the BJP renamed many Moghal monuments (Mughalsarai railway station was renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj, Maharashtra state renamed Bombay as Mumbai, after Mumbadevi). Madras became Chennai; Calcutta, Kolkata; and Bangalore, Bengaluru. The ruling BJP wants the Taj Mahal to be renamed as Tajo Mahalya (temple) (Taj Mahal to be renamed as Tejo Mahalaya? Agra Municipal Corporation to discuss a proposal. Zee News August 31, 2022).
Concluding reflections
Hindutva influence in the armed forces and judiciary is alarming. So it is particularly given the Hindu religious assembly’s call for Muslim genocide.
In 2002, the year after Modi became chief minister of Gujarat, as many as 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed and about 200,000 more were displaced in anti-Muslim riots.
Modi never apologised for his government’s failure to protect the minority or showed the slightest remorse for what happened. Modi said he regretted the Muslims’ suffering as he would a “puppy being run over by a car”.
Arundhati Roy wrote “The practice of bulldozing Muslim homes and businesses for purely punitive reasons is proof that India is ‘transitioning pretty brazenly into a criminal Hindu fascist enterprise (Arundhati Roy, India is becoming a Hindu-fascist enterprise, Al-Jazeera, 17 Jun 2022).
(The writer is a freelancer for over six decades. He has served the federal and provincial governments of Pakistan for 39 years. His contributions have been published in the leading dailies and magazines at home and abroad.)
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