Chandigarh: A series of recent official directives to the armed forces and Ministry of Defence (MoD) entities have triggered a renewed round of criticism from service veterans, defence analysts and Opposition members towards the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s ‘overt’ endeavours at politicising the country’s military.
They said that the BJP’s clutch of fiats, instructions and schemes were all aimed at ‘electorally exploiting’ the military, especially the 14.5 lakh strong Indian Army (IA), to further their numerous ongoing economic and social schemes and its wider Hindutva agenda that continually lionises India’s hoary past.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X over the weekend, Congress party head Mallikarjun Kharge stated that it was of ‘utmost importance in a democracy that the armed forces were kept out of politics’.
The loyalty, he wrote, of every jawan is to the nation and to the constitution and to force our soldiers in (to) becoming “marketing agents of government schemes is a dangerous step towards [the] politicisation of the armed forces”.
A cross-section of veteran service officers agreed.
“The government is unashamedly exploiting the services for its political ends in the upcoming state and national polls,” said a retired two-star IA officer, declining to be named as he feared repercussions, especially with regard to his continued pension payments.
Furthermore, it’s even more worrisome that such tactics are being effected with the concurrence of the military’s top brass who, unlike in the past, are anxious to please their political bosses, he added.
Writing about one such initiative to blatantly promote government programmes, former Lieutenant General H.S. Panag declared that ‘deep selection’ and ‘merit-driven’ promotions in the services had weakened the will of the top brass to deter political and non-constitutional designs of the government. His tongue-in-cheek reference to promotions was, obviously, to higher rank elevation via political patronage.
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The armed forces, the former Northern and Central Army Commander goes on to state, were a constitutional instrument controlled by the Union government, and any mandated social work initiative that smacked of political intent was an ‘encroachment’ on the federal structure.
A clutch of other senior veterans strongly condemned the politicisation of the services through government edicts. They said these ‘firmans’ (decrees) were being employed by the BJP government as a ‘force multiplier’ to favourably assist it electorally, much to the detriment of service ethics, neutrality and above all, apolitical-ness.
The latest such government venture is Project Udbhav (genesis), formally launched by defence minister Rajnath Singh over the weekend to “synthesise ancient wisdom with contemporary military practices to forge a unique and holistic approach to address modern security challenges”.
The selfie point at Rajghat.
A joint venture between the IA and the United Services Institution (USI) think tank in New Delhi, Udbhav aims, according to the Press Information Bureau (PIB), to exploit India’s 5,000-year old civilisational legacy to “comprehend its enduring connect, relevance and applicability in the modern day”.
This bequest includes studying, examining and analysing the writings of Chanakya (Arthashastra), post-Mauryan Kamandaka (Nitisara) and those of the Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar (Tirukkural), all of which the PIB incredulously declared “[align] with modern military codes of ethics or just war and principles of the Geneva Convention”.
It goes on to state that Udbhav is a “visionary initiative by the [IA]” seeking to “integrate age-old wisdom with contemporary military pedagogy”, in addition to enhancing “strategic thinking, statecraft and warfare”. In short, Udbhav, according to the MoD and the government, is poised to “foster deeper understanding” of military matters and “contribute to enriching military curricula”.
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The IA Chief of Staff General Manoj Pande, Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhuri and a host of three-star officers from all three services attended Udbhav’s launch at the Indian Military Heritage Festival in Delhi on Saturday.
But some IA officers, like retired Major General B.S. Dhanoa, who is on the faculty of the Naval War College at Mandovi in Goa, strongly disagree.
“Ancient wisdom should not be sought to tackle modern-day contingencies, even if their study brings solace to the restlessness in our mind to try and decipher what our ancestors opted to do on the battlefield in a long gone epoch,” wrote the former armoured corps officer in a recent op-ed.
“This fascination with the study of ancient texts is at best an academic exercise in self-pride, he declared.
Besides, the two-star officer chidingly added the “dulcet tones of ancient poetry” should not “seduce” people into believing that what had so far been practised in planning and executing Indian military strategy was “sub-par” and “irrelevant” or “relegated to a distant memory with rediscovered ancient wisdom”.
“Nothing”, said General Dhanoa, “could be further from the truth in the framing of modern-day military strategy and the need to have a common doctrinal thread that binds the tactical to the strategic in our expected joint theatre commands of the future.” Besides, there was a need to remain alive to the doctrinal precepts of modern-day conflict that required “keen study of current military thought”, he categorically advised.
A few days earlier, the MoD had directed the establishment of geo-tagged selfie points by all its various departments and related organisations to ‘showcase’ the achievements or good works executed by the BJP government in the military realm over the past nine years it had been in power.
The proposed 822 such selfie points, that were likely to carry a photograph of Prime Minister Modi, much like the former COVID-19 vaccine certificates and more recently like the G20 posters, which also sported the BJP’s lotus logo, would be focused on Defence Public Sector Undertakings, the Border Roads Organisation, the Indian Coast Guard, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Sainik Schools and the National Cadet Corps, amongst other military bodies.
In its October 9 directive, the MoD had declared that these selfie points would be erected at “prominent locations” with the “maximum footfall” and the potential of attracting public attention, like war memorials, rail and metro stations, bus terminals, airports, malls, schools and colleges and even festival gatherings.
The MoD had also suggested a “feedback mechanism”, including a “dedicated app” which would enable people to upload their selfies as well as posting them on exclusive handles on X, Facebook and Instagram to further transmit and perpetuate the BJP’s message in the election season.
And in May, IA Headquarters in Delhi had officially ‘recommended’ – a services euphemism for ‘ordered’ – that all soldiers on home leave propagate “nation building” endeavours in their respective village, small town and city neighbourhood communities by publicising the merits of assorted government welfare schemes like the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and many others.
The scheme would be monitored by the soldiers’ units through quarterly feedback supported by photographs and video clips.
Additionally, these ‘soldier ambassadors’ have been asked by the IA’s Ceremonials and Welfare Directorate that functions under the adjutant general’s office, responsible for the forces’ overall administration, to instruct their respective societies in patriotism and nationalism, hygiene, cleanliness, the perils of drug abuse, road safety, to motivate and mentor their youth and to organise sports events for them.
Senior military officials said that the Army Training Command in Shimla had issued formal guidelines for these soldiers to follow with regard to vindicating these ‘educative’ tasks, with the aim of ‘leveraging’ their skills and innate discipline towards augmenting nation building.
General Panag estimates that at any given time, the armed forces will have some 350,000 “social warriors” engaged in various welfare activities at a time, in what he terms the “biggest government-led social service drive ever”.
All soldiers are entitled to two months leave annually, in addition to 30 days of casual leave.
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He goes on to state that this scheme was being ‘forced’ on soldiers, or an advisory would have sufficed, rather than structured directions to implement it. In military culture, the general says, recommendations of higher headquarters were tantamount to ‘orders to be obeyed’ and argued that words had been cleverly juggled to make the scheme appear voluntary to ward off protests and court cases.
“The adage that a soldier is never off duty, has been literally applied”, General Panag said and dubbed the ‘social warrior’ scheme as “controversial both in concept and execution”.
On the wider canvas, the Faustian bargain between the Indian soldier and politicians had intensified manifold in recent years. It is no secret that many senior service personnel are increasingly identifying themselves with the BJP-led administration, that in turn seeks to exploit military achievements for political gain.
A host of senior serving and retired military officers openly acknowledge that since 2014, ‘political expediency’ has been factored into several of their tactical operational plans and wider strategic decisions. This symbiotic relationship has suited both parties.
Ruling party politicians had successfully exploited what passed for military gains to take on the election campaign trail, to project the BJPs robust handling of national security issues. And in turn, the self-centred and pecuniary-minded soldiery, in most instances, was rewarded with promotions whilst in service or lucrative employment after retirement, or in some cases both.
