‘Propaganda’ is defined as “information, ideas, opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that are broadcast, published, or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people’s opinions.” Its maximum application is in the political arena.
In the Indian context, political propaganda has been at its pinnacle in the past few years and almost the entire media – print, electronic, digital and social – has been virtually captured and conscripted to serve a political party and its supreme leader. Many institutions and instruments of democratic governance have been intruded and compromised. Now, civil services and the armed forces are being commandeered. On October 17, 2023 the Department of Personnel, Government of India instructed all ministries to nominate senior officers – joint secretaries, directors, deputy secretaries – as “District Rath Prabharis” under their purview to “showcase/celebrate achievements of the NDA government during the last nine years through “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra” from November 20, 2023 to January 25, 2024. The yatra would traverse 765 districts in the country, covering 2.69 lakh gram panchayats.
Earlier on October 6, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had subpoenaed the armed forces to promote the Union government’s achievements in various fields. As per the directions issued, the armed forces will create 822 geo-tagged ‘selfie points’ in public places across the country to “showcase good works done in defence” in a manner that “enables the people to get the feeling of being a part of the initiative.” The additional director general (media and communications), MoD issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which recommends that “the ‘selfie points’ may contain a giant-sized picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Another order was issued by the MoD on October 9, 2023 instructing soldiers on annual leave to promote government schemes, designating them as “soldier-ambassadors.”
A collage of the visual aids offered by the defence ministry to organisations and departments under it, to illustrate how the selfie points should be.
This extraordinary commandeering of civil services and the armed forces for propaganda at one go is obviously aimed at creating a positive public perception of the BJP government in general and Prime Minister Modi in particular on the eve of general elections to parliament, due in April-May, 2024. Looked at from several dimensions, this is a dangerous move.
First is the federal dimension. Article 1 of the constitution says ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.” The core objective of the constitution was to ensure national unity and integrity while at the same time performing the task of socio-economic reconstruction through democratic means. To achieve this purpose and to meet the special needs of India, the constitution framers developed a sui generis variation of federation. The constitution incorporates federal features such as the distribution of powers between the Centre and the States: 97 matters are on the Union List; States have exclusive powers on 66 matters contained in the State List; and the Concurrent List consists of 47 items. The constitution envisages India’s governance as a joint venture between the Union and state governments. But of late, the Union government has launched an assault on the federal structure of the constitution by attempting to capture areas and subjects which are within the domain of the states. This commandeering of civil services and the armed forces to trumpet the “achievements” of the Union government and the prime minister directly to the people would further worsen the situation and accelerate Centre-state tension and friction.
Second is the code of conduct. Under Rule 5(1) of the Civil Services Conduct Rules, 1964, no government servant shall take part in, subscribe to, aid of or assist in any other manner, any political movement or activity. Engaging members of any of the central civil services in the Rath Prabhari campaign, which is clearly political in nature, would therefore infringe the Civil Services Conduct Rules. “Rath Prabhari” itself is a political (mainly BJP) parlance and not that of civil service. Considering that the idea underlying this campaign exclusively revolves around the BJP government’s so-called “achievements” during the past nine years, inevitably, it has a political connotation that cannot be wished away. Had the campaign covered the entire post-independence period as we celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, it would have been a different proposition.
Also Read | It Is Not Civil Servants’ Job to ‘Showcase’ Govt Achievements: Former Cabinet Secretary
The third dimension is the grave impropriety of it all. Civil servants and soldiers are not BJP cadres. Just as there is separation of powers between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature in the constitutional scheme, there is a clear line of separation between governments that come and go in a democracy, and the bureaucracy, which is permanent. The bureaucracy’s role is to conceive, design, plan, implement and supervise policies and programmes of a government. Its job is not to do propaganda for the same, since another government voted in by the people has the right to change the policies and programmes of one government. The ‘Rath Prabhari’ programme envisaged by the present government is clearly a political programme intended to publicise its claimed achievements a few months before the 2024 general elections. This amounts to misusing government machinery for election purposes.
The fourth dimension is the core electoral code of a level playing field, which is critical for the conduct of free and fair elections. The Election Commission of India (ECI), no doubt, has directed the government not to conduct the campaign in the states (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Mizoram) where the Model Code of Conduct has come into effect due to assembly elections. Otherwise, the ECI has no problem with government servants openly participating in this political propaganda on the eve of parliament elections in 2024. This is a grave dereliction of duty by the ECI. The commission should have stopped this serious distortion of the electoral code and level playing field by invoking its plenipotentiary powers and the far-reaching judgment of the Supreme Court in the Mohinder Singh Gill vs Chief Election Commissioner (1978):
“… but where such law is silent, Article 324 of the Constitution is a reservoir of power to act for the avowed purpose of not divorced from, pushing forward a free and fair election with expedition…”
And “free and fair election” is a part of the basic structure of the constitution.
Politicisation of armed forces?
Now coming to the brazen politicisation of the armed forces and the ‘selfie points’ that have already come up in some places. The SOP lays down the themes based on the government’s catchphrases including Atmanirbhar Bharat, Sashaktikaran, Nari Shakti, digitisation etc. Look at the tearing hurry of the MoD to execute the scheme. Directions were given on October 6, execution to commence “immediately” and action taken report to be submitted by October 11.
“Is it the execution of a routine scheme or ‘all-hands-on-deck’ to identify national defence, particularly the armed forces, with the political party in power,” asks the distinguished soldier Lt Gen H.S. Panag (Retd)!
This move by the government violates Rule 20 (1) of Army Rules (1954), which says that no person subject to the Army Act shall take part in any activity held for political purposes. Also, the SOP suggesting that the ‘selfie points’ may contain a giant-sized picture of the prime minister is questionable because as per Article 53(2) of the constitution, the supreme command of the defence forces of the Union shall be vested in the president of the Republic, not the prime minister.
Representative image of the Indian Army. Photo: Public.Resource.Org/Flickr CC BY 2.0
A former Chief of Naval Staff was emphatic when he said that this programme “should never” have been contemplated and would have a negative long-term impact on the forces. He said:
“I am not quite clear about the concept underpinning the “selfie points” programme, but with the general election looming, any endeavour which even remotely involves the armed forces with political influencing, can only ring alarm bells. The MoD should never have contemplated this, and one hopes the military leadership will explain the deleterious long-term impact of politics on the morale & cohesion of our professional forces.”
What else can one expect from a political dispensation hungry for power, and whose top leader in 2019 described the Indian Army as “Modiji ki sena” and the ECI did not lift a small finger, despite strong protests by ex-servicemen?
It is intriguing why the present ruling dispensation – with its massive propaganda machinery like a large political party, RSS and affiliate associations, IT Cell and a pliant media – should commandeer the civil services and the armed forces for the purpose. A question arises: Is there a credibility crisis?
Be that as it may, we call Pakistan, which gained independence one day before us, a “failed state” mainly because of its hijacking of the civil services and politicisation of the armed forces. Is India heading that way? As it is because of the brazen crony capitalism the country resembles a “failed state” as defined by Robert Rothberg in the seminal book, When States Fail: Causes and Consequences:
“Failed states offer unparalleled economic opportunity-but only for a privileged few. Those around the ruler or ruling oligarchy grow richer while their less fortunate brethren starve… The privilege of making real money when everything else is deteriorating is confined to clients of the ruling elite… The nation-state’s responsibility to maximize the well-being and prosperity of all its citizens is conspicuously absent, if it ever existed…”
Commandeering of India’s civil services and the armed forces for political propaganda, thereby severely denting their independence and integrity, will only hasten the process.
M.G. Devasahayam is a former Army and IAS officer.
