'It's Not Surprising That Pro-Hindutva Groups Have Followers In The Armed Forces
So says the senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington, who has written papers on both the Indian and Pakistan armies.
Has the apolitical nature of the Indian military changed? Or was its apolitical nature a myth?
It’s a myth in that every army is affected to some degree by political developments in society; Huntington wrote about this, and "objective" civilian control rests upon keeping the armed forces separate from society and its turbulence. In a democracy—whether the US or India—the separation cannot be enforced, you can’t keep soldiers locked up, but it is important to stress professional values and virtues, rather than political ones, let alone try to use the army for political or cultural indoctrination. We’ve seen that happen in Pakistan where the battle between professionalism and an ‘Islamic’ army resulted in some officers heading down the revolutionary path.
Much is said about political and cultural groups adhering to the right-wing ideology as articulated by the BJP and RSS being attractive to a core group within the military leadership. Do you think this is possible?
I think it is possible. Armies are normally conservative bodies, and it would not be surprising to find that pro-Hindutva groups have followers in the armed forces (we had problems with zealous Christians in the US air force, for example), it is important that the leadership keep these groups under watch, more important that the senior military leadership makes it clear that political ideologies, especially if derived from a religious perspective, have zero role in the armed forces.
With greater exposure to the political process, are political ideologies and their manifestation in some form or the other inevitable?
Yes, but these must be balanced by a commitment to an international standard of politically-neutral professionalism. India has been relatively free of this in the past.
Has the Indian military worked toward retaining its apolitical nature or has that effort been diluted?
I think this has been the main thrust of the military, although it has been under pressure from ideologues to have a politically informed and correct view; this used to come from the Left (Menon, etc), it would not be surprising to find that politicians and civilians want the army to conform to, and be supportive of, right-wing ideologies.
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