Assertions
Towards A New India From The Ramparts Of Red Fort
There is something
about Independence Day that brings the focus back squarely on the Armed Forces.
Not just at Red Fort in Delhi, but in State after State of our Union, the
visuals on TV show the flag, the politician, framed and bracketed always by
senior members of the three wings of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
It is they, above all, who have kept this country united
and independent these 72 years, often despite the short-sighted antics of
politicians.
The Prime Minister’s own speech this year started with a
salute to our martyrs, followed by fulsome praise and gratitude to the Armed
Forces for keeping our country secure.
While, in the
course of his speech, which laid out many of his Government’s achievements over
the last 50 months, he took credit for implementing the long pending OROP, let
us hope he has taken note of the unprecedented Court Case filed by 350 soldiers.
They have moved the Supreme Court against having cases
filed by civilians against Armed Forces personnel doing their duty in good
faith and coming under the auspices of the CBI.
The Armed Forces have always been allowed, till very
lately, to do their own disciplining and policing, conduct their own enquiries, hand out judgements and
punishments; all outside the purview of Civilian Courts.
This in all save exceptional cases, where the Armed
Forces themselves have deemed it necessary to hand over a case to the civilian
Judiciary.
This move
therefore to involve the CBI across the board is seen by the Armed Forces and
many other observers as a betrayal.
On the other hand, given the demand to bring the Armed
Forces to heel under the politicians, not just by criticizing AFSPA where it is
applied, it may be a good thing for the Supreme Court to examine the case on
merits.
The Supreme Court will hopefully come down on the side of
the autonomy of the Armed Forces. For then, the likes of former Chief Minister
Mehbooba Mufti of J&K, and others looking out for the rights of Maoists for
example, cannot file cases against the Armed Forces in civilian courts.
Mufti may be motivated to pander to her perceived
political constituency of separatists and separatist sympathizers, rather than
the principles of equity and impartial justice.
But the darker implication being aired is that the Armed
Forces would tend to shield their own, despite blatant wrong-doing or
overstepping of orders.
The government on its part, may be seeking constitutional
support from the Judiciary to let the Armed Forces do its duty unhindered. This,
despite the political clamour from Leftist elements in the Opposition.
In any case, given that the political classes have
instituted near universal immunity from prosecution for themselves,
particularly as parliamentarians, they should certainly absorb the sentiment.
To add civilian law to the supremacy of the civilian
government with regard to the Armed Forces, is a way to both adversely affect
morale, and attack the effectiveness of the Armed Forces.
On India’s 72nd Independence Day, Prime
Minister Modi made his overall pitch for another term in office with a
confidence that seemed to indicate that there was little chance that he would
not be making his 6th address from Red Fort on 15th
August 2019.
Not only did he make extensive comparisons from the state
of play in 2013 under the UPA, but seemed to blithely gloss over the unkept
promises of his administration, from a platform that positioned him above the
Party he represented.
He seemed to say, and it is difficult to refute this,
that what I have accomplished in just four years is in any case unprecedented. And
I have a lofty vision for India that I will see through in the years to come.
A very similar stature accrued to Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi during her long innings, typified perhaps by the infamous and toadying
Emergency era slogan “Indira is India, and India is Indira”.
However, Modi’s perceived claim to tower above the BJP/NDA
government, has indeed manifested after just some 50 odd months in office.
One reason is certainly because he has repositioned the
sociological “Idea of India”, code for the Nehruvian world-view of Secularism
that favored the minorities at the expense of the majority; into a “New India”
in his own write.
In this view, the key notion is “Sabka Saath, Sabka
Vikaas”, code for doing away with the raw deal for the Hindu majority.
This has certainly struck a cord with the broad
population of the country, and accounts, along with Modi’s transparent honesty,
for his unwavering popularity and ratings in the high seventies.
This is why Modi will win another term in office in 2019,
aided of course by huge resources, the Party apparatus under confidant Amit Shah,
and the RSS machinery under Mohan Bhagwat. It is also because the public wants
Modi to make this profound course correction stick nationally.
This is irrespective of the fates in the coming Assembly
elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. These Assemblies may
well go to a floundering Congress, partly because the public has grown weary of
the Chief Ministers, and the relentless wages of anti-incumbency.
But these losses, if they come, will not put a dent in
the way the voters in these States, and elsewhere, vote in the general election
to favour of Narendra Modi.
If he enjoys a stature larger than his Party, it is
because he has demonstrated a vision and persona that has cast him as a man of
destiny come to take India to its rightful place in the comity of nations.
Modi harped on the dramatically changed international
perception of India during his tenure, the promise of tremendous and
transformational economic upliftment, and even planting the Indian flag in manned space flight by 2022.
The big picture, like
the eternally charismatic JFK, seems to belong to this gifted politician,
underpinned with a very strong nationalist streak. The thrilling possibility of
climbing higher from 6th largest economy to the third in the coming
decade or so is decidedly uplifting for all.
Mock as the Opposition might, Modi asserted that farm
incomes are indeed being doubled universally via MSP mechanisms. He is working
on a massive health insurance programme ,dubbed
Modicare by the media. Universal electricity, gas, rural infrastructure, Swacch
Bharat toilets by the millions, universal housing, universal connectivity via
the Internet are proceeding apace.
There is a squeeze, of course to finance some of this.
Direct tax payers have doubled, indirect tax evasion has been struck over the
head via GST, black money is under pressure with the Benami Act with teeth.
Economic offenders are cornered with the Bankcruptcy and
Insolvency Acts. Economic absconders are being collared.
Modi’s greatest
advantage is the singular lack of similar or even an alternate vision on the
part of the Opposition, reduced to a default position of criticism of the Prime
Minister and his “lies”, rather than anything constructive of their own.
They are therefore in no position to give content to the
renewed Independence Day patriotic pledge and cry of Jai Hind!
( 1,179
words)
For:
My Nation
August
15th, 2018
Gautam
Mukherjee
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