RIGHT WING ASCENDANCE IN INDIA AND POLITICISATION OF INDIA’S MILITARY
RIGHT WING ASCENDANCE
IN INDIA
AND THE
POLITICISATION OF INDIA’S MILITARY
Abstract: The rise to taking over state power after elections of
2014 by majoritarian forces in India has since witnessed weakening of
institutions of governance. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party [BJP] has returned
to power with an enhanced parliamentary majority in the 2019 elections. The
rise of hindutva [Hindu-ness], the Hindu nationalist political
philosophy of the formations comprising the BJP and the Sangh parivaar [organizational family of the Sangh] or affiliates of the right wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh[RSS], has reshaped the discourse on the
‘idea of India’. Under the extensive reframing in majoritarian nationalist
terms of Indian political verities, it is conceivable that the Indian military,
widely regarded as a professional, apolitical and secular force, will also be
impacted.
There has been little academic scrutiny of the possible
influence of majoritarianism on the Indian military. The paper examines impact
of the onset of majoritarianism democracy on India’s military by taking a close
look at the movement in civil-military relations under the BJP government. There
is a shift in civil-military relations from objective civilian control, that
enhances professionalism and keeps the military apolitical, to subjective
civilian control, wherein the military is co-opted through subscribing to the
ideology-based security perspective of the ruling party. This shift poses for the
military a risk of losing their apolitical ethic. Erosion of the apolitical
ethic of the military will open up the military’s secular ethic to modification.
The conclusions are both relevant for policy and theory. The
relevance for policyliesin the need for the Indian state and the military to preserve
professionalism by persisting with the objective civilian control model. The
theoretical relevance is in discerning limits to the concept of obedience of the
military to the civilian political rulers. Where there is a threat from a
political ideology or its penetration into the military’s intellectual domain
with the potential to dilute the military’s professionalism, the military needs
to pushback for the sake of national security.
Key words - Indian military, military sociology, hindutva, military professionalism, civil-military relations,
Indian politics
Introduction
The Indian
military is widely regarded as professional, which is defined in civil–military
theory as embodying expertise, corporate autonomy and social responsibility [Huntington
1967: 8–18]. In addition, India’s military also has a reputation for being apolitical
[Cohen 1971: 166-67, 176] and secular. Its apolitical ethic has long
distinguished it from peer militaries since historically it has stayed out of
politics [Wilkinson 2015: 3; Cohen 2010: 5]. Its secular ethic is its being imbued
with the notable Indian cultural value of secularism enshrined in the Constitution’s
preamble [Ogden 2017: 13-14]. Of late there are concerns over the possible
erosion in this apolitical and secular ethic.
As regards
secularism, the apprehensions of a revision in India’s approach to secularism
renewed with the votaries of hindutva [Hindu-ness]
or cultural nationalism gaining power in 2014.It was accompanied by the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) attaining a parliamentary majorityfor the first time in
thirty years[Ogden 2017: 19]. The ideological dominance facilitated by power
has enabled reelection of the ruling party in 2019 with more votes than in
2014. The normalization of the world view of the BJP has shifted the high
ground in Indian politics towards their ideas, which has “lastingly altered the
Indian political landscape” [Ogden 2017: 19]. It is possible to predict the
incorporation of cultural nationalist verities into the Indian political
culture in its second term [Chandra 2019].
Hindutva is a concept articulated by its leading
adherent, VD Savarkar, as defining the Hindu nation along the lines of special geography,
a common language, a shared culture and belief in the native land as a holy
land [Ahmed, H. 2019: 66-67]. The contours of the majoritarian national project
of the right wing have been described by a political scientist as:“[I]deologically
adherent to Hindutva [“Hindu-ness”] and premised on Brahmanical dominance,
Hindu nationalists are amplifying their seemingly irreversible crusade to
render India into a Hindu state [Chatterjee 2019: 398].” The change in
political culture is evident from the dropping of the word “secularism” from
the 2019 election manifesto of the leading opposition party, the Congress, [Business Standard 2019]. The common
observation is that the opposition has taken to “soft hindutva” for its electoral calculations, suggestive of the near
hegemonic status of the cultural nationalist ideology in electoral politics [Palsikar
2019: 101].
The argumentand scope
In theory, there
are two options of civilian control over the military. Objective civilian
control is the “maximisation of military professionalism” in order to keep it
politically “sterile and neutral.” On the other hand, subjective civilian
control is maximisation of the power of a particular civilian group in relation
to the military [Huntington 1967: 80–85]. Objective civilian control underpins professionalism.
Subjective civilian control entails subscription to the ideological orientation
of their civilian political masters by the military. Ideology is “a set of
values and attitudes oriented about the problems of state [Huntington 2005: 90].”Since
political parties differ in ideological orientations, in a democratic polity
the military needs to maintain its ideological neutrality, easing its deference
to civilian authority of any ideological hue.
Thus far, Indian
civil–military relations have largely been characterised by objective civilian
control, wherein the military is kept distant from politics by an emphasis on
its professionalism. India has been close to the Huntingtonian ideal of
mutually respected political–military distance, wherein militaries restrict
lobbying to such military-relevant matters as budgets, pay, weapons acquisition
etc [Kundu 1998: 1]and protecting bureaucratic turf, without overly indulging
in policy activism. On this aspect, Stephen Cohen’s observation of the early
years of Independence, is that, “[T]o officers [in the Indian Army at least]
profession comes first, and “politics” finds no place[Cohen 1971: 195].”
The paper discusses
politicization by visualizing the cultural space as three nested circles: political,
strategic and organizational culture. The three nested circles, with political
culture at the outer layer and organizational culture in the core, have
inter-permeable boundaries. Political culture provides the top-down context for
strategic culture or political-military culture. Strategic culture is also
subject to a bottom-up influence from the military’s organizational culture
[Kier 1997].
Culture is
collectively held at a national-societal-community level as “a set of
unselfconscious assumptions as to seem a natural, transparent, undeniable and
rarely debated part of the structure of the world” [Kier 1997: 26]. Political
culture includes “commitment to values like democratic principles and
institutions, ideas about morality and the use of force, the rights of
individuals and collectives, or predispositions toward the role of a country in
global politics” [Lantis 2002: 90]. The ruling party operating on a mix of authoritarianism,
majoritarianism, nationalism and populism [Jaffrelot 2019: 4], is undertaking a
makeover of India.The New India – a phrase coined by Prime Minister Narndra
Modi - fostered by the “Hindu nationalist dominance to establish a majoritarian
state in India [Jaffrelot 2019: 1],” may require more of the military than
political inertness. The difference in political culture with right wing
ascendance is in hindutva papering
over shared divisions by emphasis on a shared religion. It is attempting to
homogenize Hinduism, otherwise differentiated into several castes and sects.
Political
culture impacts strategic culture. Strategic culture is an ideational milieu,
setting pervasive strategic preferences for a state based on widely held
concepts of roles and efficacy of use of force in political affairs by its
political and strategic elites [Johnston 1995: 46]. Apprehending a consequent
national weakness, the ruling formations have alongside militarized the social
and cultural spaces. Militarism in strategic policy is also much in evidence. Riding
on the back of an upward economic trajectory, military modernization over this
century has recreated Indian military power. This has enabled a shift in
strategic culture from strategic restraint [Cohen 2010: 13] to strategic
proactivism in the Modi era, best signified by the surgical strikes [Ahmed
2016].
Strategic
culture abuts organisational culture, which is, “the patterns of assumptions,
ideas, and beliefs that prescribe how a group should adapt to external environment
and manage its internal structure [Legro 1994: 115].” Since military culture
comprises “beliefs and norms about the optimal means to fight wars [Legro 1994:
109],” organisational culture has an autonomous influence on military
preferences.There are two routes for political cultural impact on
organizational culture: one being the direct influence of political cultural
change on the military’s organizational culture; and second, is through
mediation by an intervening strategic culture.
Since the military,
as a political community, is resident within a larger political community, its
host society, it is affected by the dominant tendencies within the larger
national community [Rosen 1996: 267]. So far, India’s military as a technical
and professional group maintained an isolation from society – best signified by
its inhabiting cantonments distinct from local communities – not only due to inertia
since the days of its origin as a British colonial institution, but also in
order to keep away from the social and political tumult. Rapid political
cultural change is voiding old verities. There is a collapse among the three
circles with a monocular – saffron-political culture engulfing organizational
culture, impacting the latter’s apolitical and secular facets.
The paper only
briefly probes for changes in secularism, though a detailed study is separately
needed. Secularism has been under redefinition by cultural nationalism [Chandhoke
2019: 538]. Briefly, the incidence of cultural nationalist thinking has not
been unknown in the military. Omar Khalidi, taking a sociological look at the
military of the nineties, made critical observations on this score [Khalidi
2003: 38-40]. The trend is a continuing
distancing from civic nationalism towards religion-based ethnic nationalism [Ansari
2019].The hindutva version of
secularism is not based on respect of plurality stemming from India’s
diversity, but on the belief that India is secular since Hinduism issecular [Noorani
2019: 376].
The military is
predominantly Hindu in social composition. The military’s sociological
composition is unrepresentative of India’s social diversity [Rosen 1996: 206,
239; Jaffrelot 2019: 43-46]. While numbers are not in the open domain, Muslims
comprise about three per cent of the army and less than two per cent of the
more consequential officer corps [Ahmed 2018]. Even so, this does not ipso facto imply the military need be
any more receptive to hindutva or
political Hinduism.
Hindutva doctrine is essentially politicized
Hinduism, a reactionary version of the syncretic Hindu faith.A case to point on
the drawbacks is brought out in Christine Fair’s work [2014] on the
Islamisation of the Pakistan army in the years of President Zia ul Haq. Drawing
analogy by likening political Hinduism with political Islam, it is averred here
that diluted professionalism, or departure from modern rational-legal norms,could
accrue in case of India too.
Methodology and layout
The paper is a
qualitative study based on secondary sources. The paper takes the rise of the
political Right in Indian politics as an independent variable and the military’s
professionalism as the dependent variable. There are two intervening variables
within the military’s organizational culture: apolitical ethic and secularism.
To observe the impact of hindutva on
the organizational culture, the paper confines itself to observations on the
apolitical ethic. It presents the shift from objective to subjective civilian
control as evidence of implications of hindutva
for the apolitical ethic. Change in the intervening variable - apolitical ethic
- can be expected to herald a change in the sister ethic, secularism [discussed
briefly in the paper].
The paper has
two parts. In Part I, it undertakes a case study of the February 2019 crisis between
India and Pakistan and the immediate aftermath[Nuclear Crisis Group 2019] to
highlight changes in the apolitical ethic of India’s military.This part
highlights the manner in which the military has supported the government’s
political interests by egregiously intervening in the then ongoing
election-relevant debates. In Part II, itdiscussespermeation ofhindutva into organizational culture.As
evidence of a direct route of such penetration, the paper presents an article
published in a professional journalof a training institution of the army wherein
the author, the head of the institution,reveals political polarization within
the military[Ghura 2018].A brief sub-section carries illustrative examples of
presence of right wing trope in Indian military professional journals.
Part I - Case study on the India-Pakistan crisis
The political contention
In the run-up to
the 2019 national elections, over 150 veterans of the armed forces wrote an
open domain letter to the President of India [Wire 2019a]. Noting the references to military operations in
electioneering, in particular by the ruling party, the letter expressed
apprehensions over the politicisation of the military.The letter served the
purpose of bringing the threat of politicization of the military into the open.
In the run up to
the 2019 elections, persuasive narratives spelling a challenge for the BJP built
up around such issues as unemployment, the effects of demonetisation, the
implementation of the goods and services tax, farmers’ suicides, rural distress
etc.[1]
However, as the elections approached, the game changer turned out to be the Balakot
aerial strike by India on 26 February 2019. The aerial strikewas the first one
inside Pakistan since the 1971 War, Balakot being inside Khyber Pukhtunistan
province. Aerial targeting of an alleged terrorist training facility was
conducted by India in retaliation for the 16 Februarycar-borne improvised
explosive device attackon theIndian security convoyin Pulwama in Kashmir that resulted
in44 troopers as casualties.[2]
On the campaign
trail, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took credit for the strikes. He had been rather critical of the preceding
Congress-led government’s response - or lack thereof - to the Mumbai terror
attack, 26/11, in November 2008.[3]His
posturing over security in the election run-up met with the opposition’s
protests to the election commission that thatviolated the model code of conduct.
The election commission found nothing amiss, though, as it later turned out,
its decision lacked consensus.[4]Over
subsequent days, the government’s version was exposed by international media as
lacking substance.[5]
This led to the pushback by the opposition seeking to undercut the ruling
party.
The BJP’s
election strategy had precedence in its similarly playing up the land-based surgical
strikes of 29 September 2016, whenacross a wide front the army had launched
multiple trans-Line of Control [LC]raids on terrorists’ camps in retaliation to
the terror attack on the army garrison at Uri on 18 September 2016.[6] In
the event, Pakistandenied those had ever takenplace.[7]The
surgical strikes wereput to political use by the ruling party in state
elections in Uttar Pradesh in February 2017, resulting in its sweeping victory.
The government hyped up the surgical strikes yet again in 2018, this time by observing
Parakram Parv, Surgical Strike Day,[8]as
elections to three cow-dust belt state assemblies – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh - loomed large. Nevertheless, later in the year, the BJP lost
the three assembly elections narrowly, setting the stage for the national
elections.
The BJP,
seemingly checked, was looking out for an opportunity to reframe the election
narrative away from issues of governance. The opportunity came in the form of the
Pulwama terror attack, allowing it to use its bold retaliation at Balakot to elevate
national securityas the core election issue. To assert its strong-on-defence
credentials, it also undertook an anti-satellite weapons test, with Prime
Minister Narendra Modi using an address to the nation to proclaim the success
of the test.[9]Sensing
the reframing of the electoral agenda, the opposition Congress party claimed
that while in power it had similarly launched trans-LC raids[Scroll 2019]. It specified six such
strikes, with former commanders testifying along the same lines in the media.
The army’s partisanship
In so far as the
claims and counter claims played out between the two political parties, it
could be taken as par for electioneering course. However, the military joined
the electoral debate on the side of the government. Whether it was put to it by
the government or its action was at its own behest is unknown. In either case,
it was a political intervention on the part of the military.
In the case of
the controversy surrounding the surgical strikes, the military contested the
version of a retired general who had conducted the September 2016 surgical
strikes. Retired General DS Hooda had been critical of the government for
overhyping the surgical strikes. Hooda had been contracted by the opposition
Congress party to write up its national security doctrine.[10]
The Congress party wary of being accused of being soft on security used Hooda’s
doctrinal ideas to inform its manifesto to pep up its electoral prospects.In
response, the northern army commander, Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, argued
that surgical strikes helped tocommunicate deterrence to Pakistan.[11]The
controversy resurfaced as voting came to an end. Contradicting the Congress’
claims on overseeing surgical strikes in its time in power, the army operations
branchclaimed that it had no record of any previous surgical strikes[Bhat 2019].
The northern army commander, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, seconded the operations
branch[Business Standard 2019], yet
again at odds with the claim of his predecessor, retired General DS Hooda.[12]
This indirect public
exchange at the election time between a former and a serving general - with the
serving general, Singh, contradicting the retired one, Hooda, associated with
the opposition party -is an instance of politicization.[13]It
is not known whether General Ranbir Singh was acting at his own behest or was
put to it by his political masters who wanted to refute the authoritative voice
of retired General Hooda seen as favouring the opposition. In either case, it
amounts to an intervention by the army relying on its professional credibility
and credible image in the public eye to back the ruling party’s caseand is,
therefore, an avoidable departure from its apolitical tradition.
The air force plays partisan
A similar departure
from the apolitical credo can be made out from the controversy surrounding the Balakot
episode and its immediate aftermath in a counter aerial strike by Pakistan in
the Rajauri-Naushera sector on 27 February 2019. India lost a fighter plane in
the dogfight and claimed to have shot down a Pakistani F-16. An information war
with Pakistan resulted fromthat.[14]
India subsequently awarded a combat medal to the pilot of its downed aircraft
for having shot down a superior Pakistani fighter jet prior to bailing out in
Pakistani territory. [He was later repatriated by Pakistan in a gesture that
de-escalated the crisis.] The election time gain for the BJP is its image of a
new, muscular India , which was provided bythe narrative of exacting a higher
damage on Pakistan for the loss of its Mig 21 fighter jet. The air force’s
lending credibility to the narrative – of having shot down an F-16 - amounts to
political partisanship since it obscures its loss of an aircraft.
In addition, a
major controversy played out in the national media over alleged procedural
lapses in the acquisition of the Rafale jet aircraft from France. The Rafale
aircraft purchase was fast-forwarded by the prime minister during his visit to
Paris in 2015. The modified deal led to fewer aircraftsto bepurchased than in
the original agreement. The departures from the procedures this entailed led to
allegations of benefits from the linked offset contract going to a corporate
house allegedly favoured by the ruling party. In the event, a controversial
ruling by the Supreme Court in the government’s favour stoppedfurther attempts.[15]
As the
controversy unfolded at the political level, the air chief publicly rued the absence
of the Rafale aircraft[Peri 2019]inthe inventory. The implicit criticism was
that non-realizationof the deal in a timely manner deprived India of a
technological edge. This was suggestive of a slovenly approach to defence
procurements by the Congress-led predecessor government, which had long
negotiated over the deal without finalizing it. In contrast, the BJP had it that
the lack of aircrafts was caused bythe Prime Minister Modi’s decisive
intervention in the Rafale purchase when he clinched the deal in his trip to
France in 2015., In the process,he generated the controversy over the off-sets
clause of the deal, the comparative price of aircraft and the fewer numbers
settled for. Given the political backdrop of the Rafale deal, the air chief’sunbidden
reference to it was questionable.
Moreover, the air
force delayedan inquiry over the downing of its helicopter in a fratricide incident
over Budgam in Kashmir on 27 February, at the time of the heightened crisis
when Pakistan carried out its counter strike. The cover up during elections was
with the excuse that the black box recorder of the helicopter was stolen by
Kashmiri locals, thereby delaying the inquiry.[16]Thetiming
of the release of the outcome of the inquirytill after the elections is suggestive
of a political rationale.Friction is intrinsic to military action. The loss of
the helicopter was dueto the friction from the military action in the crisis,
the responsibility for which did not require to be hidden. To the extent the military
kept the reality voters, the military’s actions can be seen as partisan.
Significantly,
after the election, the air chief went on to claim that there was no
intervention by the Pakistan air force into Indian airspace in their counter
strike of 27 February [Times of India
2019]. This contradicted the government’s statement complaining of an air
intrusion [Ministry of External Affairs 2019]. No clarification ensued. The air
chief used the credibility of the military uniform and his appointment to
rewrite the record of the crisis to the government’s advantage.
Part II – Political-organizational cultural
interplay
The cultural milieu
Stephen Peter
Rosen in his book, India and its Armies,
recalls noted political scientist Myron Weiner’s observation of the sixties that
there are two political cultures in India: a traditionalistone – Hindu -, and,the
second one - elite - apolitical culture with a modern and national outlook [Rosen
1996: 33]. The latter – the elite strategic culture - subsumes the strategic
subcultures: hyper-nationalist, neo-liberal and Nehruvian [Bajpai 2002]. The
difference in the three strategic subcultures conceptualized by Kanti Bajpai is
in the differing utility accorded to use of force and alternatives as economic
incentives. However, over this decade, the rise of hindutvahas substantially dominated the elite political culture in
India’s ideational milieu. Resultantly,Weiner’s traditionalist Hindu culture
now partially straddles the hyper-nationalist and neo-liberal strategic
subcultural spaces and has decisively edged out Nehruvian strategic subculture.
Tenets of a
revivalist strategic subculture are references to a hoary past vandalized by invading
Muslim hordes. A worldview propagated by
the prime minister early in his tenure is that Hindu power was eclipsed by subjugationfor
over a thousand years, including two hundred years under the colonial power,
the British.[17]The
revivalist strategic narrative acounts that by disunity within. Consequently,
India needs a unifying adhesive, readily available in the shared Hindu
religion, culture and heritage.[18]
This puts religion at the center of nation-building, with access to and control
of state power necessary to extend thishindutva
project.
Religion has the
advantage of being a step higher than a caste, compensating for division intocastsby
religious affinity. Stephen Rosen surveyed the pervasive role of caste in its
host societyand its effect on the army [Rosen 1996: viii-x]. With divisive
caste superseded by harmonizing religion, military power could potentially be
optimized. The separation of the military from society - to keep the divisions
in society from being reflected in the army - could then be minimized. Strategic
self-assertion has been largely welcomed by the military.[19]
A view of the military’s internal debates
The polarisation within
The direct route
of political cultural impact on organizational culture can be viewed in thearticle
titled, “Keeping the military apolitical: Looking inwards” [Ghura 2018: 20-25],
authored by the then commanding general of the army’s Counter Insurgency and
Jungle Warfare School [CIJWS] in Veirangte, Mizoram, in the training
institution’s flagship journalPratividrohi
[Counter insurgent].[20]The
questionhe posesis, “How do soldiers get polarized[22]?”The question he poses presupposes
polarization within the military and a shortfall from his definition of
apolitical: “[A] soldier is said to be apolitical if his biases toward any
political party / politicians does not affect his ability to do his duty in
service of his nation on orders of the Govt [government] or that political
party in power [20].”He underlines the touchstone of the apolitical ethic,
thus: “The military needs to be apolitical so that the rule of law and
democratic process prevails in the country in accordance with the Constitution.
Military alignments can lead to crating biases amongst voters / citizens and
election of politicians who may be Military favourites, which is neither
acceptable nor desirable in democratic India [20].” By this yardstick, he
apprehends “a real danger - breakdown of professionalism [21].”
In India,
polarisation is usually a euphemism for a divide along religious lines.
Ascendance of the ruling party has been attributed to its increasing
polarisation within society, furthered by the ruling party for political gains.
The political strategy is to marginalize the minority, India’s Muslims, and to generate
for the BJP, a vote bank ofthe denominational majority, the Hindu community, comprising
80 per cent of the population[Jaffrelot et al 2019: 8-11].Polarization in
society has been promotedby the personalized style of the Prime Minister Modi’s
politics[Jayal 2019: xxix]. In the article, the author appears to refer to
polarization within the military between those in support for the ruling party and
those wary of the ruling party and the traditionally neutral. the extent to
whicn support for the ruling party implies support for its hindutvacan only be definedthrough a wider survey-based study. Itis
not possible to conduct in a relatively closed military domain.
Querying the policy of deep selection
The author apprehends
a possibility of compromise of the apolitical ethic in observing a “perceived
change in the attitude of Senior military commanders as a result of the changed
policy of selection of higher ranks with in the Services[22].” To him, in such
an environment, “decision making and risk taking ability becomes casualty[22],”presumably
because generals so afflicted would be looking over their shoulders to a cue
from their political masters. He decries the resulting onset of “political
ambitions of serving and retired military personnel[22].”
He refers to
politically inclined generals positioning themselves for higher ranks by signaling
political pliability to the government. This change has been facilitated by the
government’s policy of deep selection of higher appointments against the
earlier system of seniority based selection. This may incentivize ambitious
generals to political proclivities of the ruling party, as spelled outby a
former general: “Though it is good to have a meritocracy, there must be clear
criteria for determining merit. Otherwise, generals will start approaching
politicians who can promote them to the top, and that will end the apolitical
character of the army.”[21]
A case to point
is controversial beginning ofthe deep selection system adopted by the
government in the elevation of the army chief, General Bipin Rawat. It resulted
in supersession of two of his seniors.[22]An
explanation put out was that the appointment resulted from Rawat’s operational
experience in counter insurgency and on the LC against Pakistan. This would
prove useful for the government in its hardline policy against Pakistan
involving retributory surgical strikes. Rawat had in a previous appointment overseen
similar strikes in Myanmar territory in 2015[23]
that had set the stage for replication of the tactics on the LC in 2016.[24]
Selected for
concordance with the government’s hardline policy, allegations of partisanship have
since plagued Rawat [Wire 2019b]. He courted
controversy in conferring an award on the perpetrator in a signal human rights
violations case, the “human shield” episode in Kashmir. The case in question
was in which an army major tied a Kashmiri to the bonnet of a jeep and paraded
the jeep past a few villages as deterrent against stone throwing.[25]
Rawat once ventured out of his remit in controversially referring to domestic politics
in India’s north eastern state,Assam, that has a relatively delicate ethnic balance,
claiming a link between a regional political party and a voter base of illegal
immigrants.[26]
Recently, during
his 2019 Independence Day speech the prime minister announced creation of the
position of the chief of defence staff [CDS]. The CDS would be a four-star
appointment, mandated to oversee joint operational and support entities of the
armed forces.Critics have it that, “Modi has shown a marked preference for
officials either already known to him or those considered ideologically
reliable [Gupta 2019: 12].” A CDS appointed on the basis of like-mindedness
would open up the military further in-roads. The power of the government for elevating
senior commanders to higher appointments may translate into a loyalty test.In
the governance structure, NSA Doval, who was earlier head of theright wing
think tank, is incharge of national security with a cabinet rank.[27]
There is a palpable danger to the apolitical ethic.
Direct political-organisational cultural osmosis
The author
refers to a second conduit of domestic politics into the military: the retired military
fraternity. The politicized section of the veterans’ community acts as a
transmission belt of political positions.[28]The
ruling party has inducted military veterans in large numbers into its ranks.[29]
The first election foray of Narendra Modi in his 2014 bid for national power took
placeat an ex-servicemen rally organized by theretired army chief, who then
went on to a ministerial position in Modi’s council of ministers.[30]
Within the
military, pro-Modi elements within the ranks amplify the right wing trope in
social media groups internal to the military, making such spaces politically
charged.[31]The
military is a conservative institution with its members being of a largely
realist and nationalist persuasion [IDS 2017: 59]. Therefore, the ruling party
ideology holds resonance in a military constituency. The projection of
decisiveness and being strongondefence issues enable Modi’s adherents – bhakts[devotees] in colloquial parlance
- to rationalize their support in national security terms. It obfuscates their political
inclination and political behavior under a populist sway. With the support of
the media, Modi has personalized foreign and security policy for electoral ends
[Noorani 2019: 365; Varshney 2019: 335]. This sets a process of direct interplay
between political and organizational culture.
A pushback from within
In his article,
the author perceptively notes, “[H]ighlighting military successes for political
gains, like surgical strikes / success in war and tasking soldiers for
unauthorised tasks demotivates the soldiers[23].” This reflects the resentment
within the army for its operational successes being appropriated for electoral
purposes, highlighted by the veterans in their letter to the President of India
[referred to in the earlier section], writing: “…unusual and completely
unacceptable practice of political leaders taking credit for military
operations like cross-border strikes, and even going so far as to claim the
Armed Forces to be “Modi ji ki Sena” [Modi’s
army][Wire 2019a].”To the extent this
is in line with the opposition’s view, the military apparently has within ita
segment responsive to Modi’scritics, too. This underlines the polarization the author
addresses in his concluding recommendation below:
One can keep
dwelling on how the Politicians, Media and the society at large is forcing the
Military senor leaders and personnel to take sides or become politically
aligned to a party. ….[we must]recognise
this challenge and address it upfront. However we must also discreetly inform
the Governments in power not to politicize the Military actions or successes,
since it effects and weakens the organization and Nation[25][italics added].
Evidence of right wing cadence
Evidence of
right wing thinking surfacing within the military’s intellectual sphere is visible
in a recent issue of the professional journal, Pratividrohi, Autumn 2019.In the lead article of the journal on insurgency in Jammu and
Kashmir [J&K], the author – a serving colonel – writes:“[A]t the time of
independence, J&K had 77 percent [sic] Muslims favouring accession to
Pakistan…[Gupta 2019: 2].” It is difficult to agree with that since it is well
known that the major Kashmiri political party popular with a substantial
section of Muslims wanting accession to India in 1947 was the secular National
Conference. On the current situation in Kashmir, the colonel goes on to write
that, “Proliferation of large number of religious places has led to a constant
flow of radical material for the masses [Gupta 2019: 6].” He equates religious literature
in mosques with “radical material” implying that in his mind’s eye Islamic
cultural transmission within the social sphere of a mosqueequals radicalization,
a precursor to terrorism. Frustrated with the interference with military
operations by stone pelting mobs of the Kashmiri youth, a feature of the last
few years in Kashmir, he recommends, “Stone pelters have to be dealt with as
terrorists to negate their nuisance value during operations [Gupta 2019: 5-6].”
Remarkably, this rather extreme measure of elimination of unarmed stone pelting
youth, that goes against the army’s well-regarded doctrine of ‘winning hearts
and minds’ in counter insurgency situations, is carried in its premier
professional journal on counter insurgency.
Another illustration in the same journal is
from the article by the CIJWS’ present Commandant, Major General MK Mago, who
claims, “Global Jihadists into the country and tacit support and merger with
home grown radicalized groups such as Student (sic) Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI) and Indian Mujahedeen has deeply Radicalized people of a particular
faith [Mago 2019: 90].”He defines radicalization as “the process of adopting an
extremist belief system including the willingness to use, support or facilitate
violence, as a method to effect societal change [Mago 2019: 88].” The reference
to Indian Muslims as “deeply radicalized”
is arguably false. Such imagery is usually found in right wing literature for
political purposes of Othering and marginalization of India’s Muslim minority.
The general goes on to conclude that, “there
is a need to revitalize India’s and the region’s socio cultural ethos, wherein
countries should not just represent political unions but should emerge as
organic, composite entities. In the absence of a strong social fabric and
common cultural ethos, security measures can never prove sufficiently resilient
against the threat of Radicalisation [Mago 2019: 96].” This extract has echoes
of cultural nationalism.It is not known as to whether right wing motifs finding
their way into military literature is part of a policy of the government or
individual proclivities of right wing inclined officers.
Future course of politicization
Polarisation
within the military has opened it up to subjective civilian control, the first
stage of politicisation. A closer embrace of the military is made possible bythe
right wing’s dominance of political culture, exercise of parliamentary majority
and populist leadership at the helm. This creates the conditions for the second
stage of politicization - indoctrination with cultural nationalism. This will
preclude the military having a different worldview, setting it at odds with the
changed polity. Incentive thus exists for the government to proceed down this
route.
Institutions and
agencies of governance have been under pressure to conform to a cultural
nationalist dictate[Varshney 2019: 342-345]. The military cannot be an exception.
Universally, military members largely vote for conservative parties; this is
valid also for the Indian military. A former army vice chief, Vijay Oberoi,
notes the affinity of the military with conservative parties, stating, “The
language of those on the right of centre has always had greater appeal for men
in uniform in most democracies. I have done a course in the United States and I
saw 90 per cent of the officers were Republican [Datta et al 2008].” This
predisposition makes iteasier to bridge any gaps in the conservative world view
of the military and cultural nationalism.
The
army cannot be an institution for the autonomous formation of a worldview or
ideology among its personnel. However, besides the usual national security and
institutional interest related lobbying - for arms purchases etc. for instance
- the military cannot be a player in domestic politics. If it is at odds with
or is aloof from the cultural nationalist enterprise, it could by default be
taken as favouring the other side in domestic politics; thereby intensifying
the struggle between political forces for its affiliation. This threat of the
military being sucked in willy-nilly into domestic politics makes it necessary
to settle on ground rules keeping the military outside the religion and
ideology framework and maintaining objective civilian control.
Being apolitical
has the advantage of preserving the three planks of professionalism: expertise,
advisory and corporate autonomy. Expertise is diluted by elevation to apex
military positions of officers inclined to the dominant ideological position.
This may be occurring at the cost of their expertise, since their
professionalism may be overlooked in favour of their ideological affinity or
amenability to political manipulation. The second – advisory - function stands
to suffer in case such appointees proffer advice that the political principal
may wish to hear. The third – corporate autonomy – is compromised when the
pliant organizational leader subordinates the organizational interest to the
political interest of the governing political party.
More importantly,
alternation of ruling parties in thedispensation of democracy implies that the military
owing allegiance to a particular political partybecause oftheir ideological
affinity would run afoul of other political parties elected to power. Exercise
of the advisory function would be visibly affected, in addition to tensions in
civil-military relations. Modi’s adoption of a muscular national security
policy has tapped into the doctrinally-expressed strategic preferences of the
military.[32]
In Modi, the military has a pro-military leader. Pro-military is a
predisposition to being sympathetic to a military viewpoint [Huntington 2005: 97].
The personalization of the connection compounds the problem, threatening to
compromise the military in its relations with other political groupings if and
when elected to power.
Anattraction for
hindutva cannot be withoutits
anti-minority baggage,leading todetraction from secularism. Proximity to hindutva implies disdain for religious
and cultural diversity [Jaffrelot 2019]. Contraction of secularism means a
setback for modernity and scientific thinking. That the change is occurring can
be seen in the messagefrom the new naval chief. In the letter to naval members,
the navy chief required curtailment of religious rituals in official
ceremonies.[33]This
tacitly suggests that religious observance was increasing to such levels that the
armed forceshead had to curtail it.
Finally, the
army is heavily involved in internal security operations in Kashmir, where
there is a Muslim population. A major prospective adversary in a possible future
war is Pakistan, a Muslim state. In case military operations acquire a
religious colouring, emotive issues may cloud professional judgment.
Conclusion
India is turning
into a majoritarian state. Right wing ideology has it that India’s
millennia-long weakness has been its diversity and its respect of diversity. An
overarching sense of affiliation tying citizens together and to the state can
be instilled by pan-Indian Hinduism. The right wing has acquired democratic power
to give effect to their re-imagination of India as a Hindu India.
Since hindutva has not acquired political
hegemony so far and is only making a bid for it politically and socially,
having taken over the state through the ruling party, politically ascendant hindutvavotaries would be inclinedtouse the
military as part of their project. To them, displacement of the apolitical ethic
in the military is a small price to pay for the larger national transformation.
Adherence to cultural nationalism will make the military a reliable instrument in
the defence and propagation of hindutva.Thus
incentivized, the right wing take-over of the military willfascilitate cultural
nationalism and theirhegemonic status.
This calls for a
watchfulness on the military’s partand a self-regulation on part of the
political class to follow the time tested norm on keeping the military out of
politics. In case of neglect of such an early warning, involvement of the military
into politics sets the stage for the military’s involvement in politics on its
own volition. If the onset of subjective civilian control keeps the military
subordinate to its cultural nationalist overseers in the initial phases of the
national transformation exercise, it also simultaneously creates the conditions
for military interference in politics subsequently. A cultural nationalism-inclined
military maximally could veto democratic transition to a popularly elected
future government not subscribing to hindutva
or minimally prove insubordinate.
Politicisation
of the military may prove both, the benchmark of success for the political
project of hindutva,and the
instrument of hindutva spread. That the
incipient politicisation is underway is evident in the polarization within the
military. cultural nationalism has beendirectly seeping into the military’s organizational
culture by way of the leadership cult around Modi, popular with the middle
classes, from which spring the officership of the military, and due to the wide
societal approval and allegiance of cultural nationalism. Indirectly, this has
been reinforced through the strategic cultural shift to strategic proactivism
that has the military’s approval,under Modi.
The manner in
which the military’s organizational culture shapes up,will depend on the
consolidation of hegemony of hindutva.
Even if cultural nationalists succeed, the military will remain traditionallypolitically
neutered through subjective civilian control. subjective civilian controlof the
military then may arguably be employed as it may be necessary to ensure the
military’s subordination. However, a premature shift to subjective civilian
control at the time when hindutva is
contested can end up making the military a site of the competition by ending its
traditional and hypothecated neutrality. This paper states that the apolitical
ethic of the military is currently on the frontlinedue tointentions ofhindutva revivalists to co-opt the
military in their reshaping of India and their desire to find partial resonance
within the military.Consequently, the cautionary word for the government and
the military is that both need persisting with the tried and tested mode of
political direction and military subordination respectively.
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[20] Words in initial capitals in the
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[28] Other avenues such as family
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but form the ecosystem propagating Hindu nationalism.
[29]The
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[30]NDTV, “Narendra
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[31]Ali Ahmed, “Dark side of Army”s
social media groups,” Tribune, 2
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[33]The
Print, “New Navy chief”s first order — no “quasi
religious” functions, please, we are the Navy,” 6 June 2019,
