Attack on India’s diversity

The BJP under Narendra Modi-Amit Shah is making fresh political conquests by the day but is leaving behind the odious residue of discord, conflict and impunity. The latest to raise the flag is a group of over 100 retired officers from all the three services who have penned a collective letter to the Prime Minister protesting the relentless vigilantism that is sweeping parts of the country. This is not the first time that superannuated officers, with no ostensible axe to grind, have cautioned the Modi government about the social discord unleashed in towns and villages of the country. Last month 65 retired bureaucrats of all India and Central services, who were at pains to point out that they had no political affiliation, had expressed their deep disquiet over the erosion of the credo of impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution.

What makes the latest missive different is that all of its backers are retired officers from the three services, the constituency completely claimed by the ruling dispensation. These former officers also say the compelling reason for penning the note of protest is the current climate of divisiveness behind which is the cultivated buildup of climate of hate and distrust. Like their retired civilian colleagues, these officers have also done some plain speaking on the browbeating of the media and the targeting of Dalits and Muslims.

Success is a major disincentive for changing course, especially in a hard-fought profession like politics. The Prime Minister referred to communalism in his latest broadcast to the nation but it was water off the duck's back for the Hindutva vigilante crowd. The formula worked brilliantly in UP and Assam and reaped a decent harvest in Bihar that subsequently came in handy.  This approach is overlaid with the sauce of hyper-nationalism in which it is proclaimed that the armed forces are co-opted partners as they chip away at the Constitution’s liberal and secular values. Now it is that very section which says it can no longer look away in silence while diversity, the glue of cohesion for the nation and the armed forces, is under attack.