Tilt at the windmills

A Coup Is Not A Politically Incorrect Word In The Present Times In India

The National Defense Academy calendar comprises published routine, special training and administrative events, during each of the spring and autumn terms, into which the year is divided. The days are numbered on a D Day basis, with the month and weekday also mentioned alongside. With a view to broaden the horizons of the young and inquisitive minds of cadets, Wednesday evenings in the calendar contain listings of such events as are mostly organized for a gamut of information/knowledge imbibing activities, including talks/ presentations given by eminent civil/ military personalities, on a wide range of subjects and issues which have a contemporary relevance to the need of the society/nation/region and the world, at large or else in particular. Today, after many years having passed from the time that, I too was a cadet in this premier institution, my memory enables me to recollect one such evening, wherein in a talk given by an eminent military leader  on ‘Democratic India and the Future of Democracy in the Nation’, springs up to my mind. The speaker was an accomplished military thinker who adorned soldierly values on his sleeves and had on matters of principles bucked the system on many occasions, without a moment’s hesitation for the consequences which could derail his brilliant career. However, his merit and competence to reach the top of the organizational hierarchy was singularly marginalized by the first executive of the country, who felt threatened by his forthrightness and daring to stand up to the government, when it so demanded, on professional and governance matters. Democracy, an evolved form of government, which is lucidly explained by the towering political leader Abraham Lincoln in his memorable and famous quote, has endured the people’s choice and has grown deep roots in the public, administrative and social fabric of India.  Unfortunately, with the passage of time and institutionalization of corruption in public life and unethical practices in business, the process of choosing the elected representatives by the people has been manipulated to an extent of perversion, where money and muscle power decide the outcome of who gets past the  post and becomes the people’s elected representative. Unethical market and material forces form a nexus with the people’s representatives to, marginalize the essence and spirit of democracy and substitute it with a poor reality, which sucks. It was in such an environment that the speaker reached out to the audience with the popular and public demand of having a Military Rule to govern India.

The general officer prefaced his talk with the preamble to the constitution and unequivocally stated its lofty ideals and enduring commitment to the principles of being a sovereign democratic republic, which is not only an instrument of legitimacy but also unflinching faith. The pillars of this dispensation are the constitutional institutions, which enshrine and adorn the pages of this comprehensive document, carved from the experience of the social reality which obtained in India during the years of colonial rule. While the speaker revealed that there was a friendly suggestion by some civilians for the Army to take over, he condemned it with all his force and authority in the same breath, as only a pipe dream which was impossible to happen in our country. His argument was premised on unassailable factors – size, population, deep rooted democratic culture, character and fealty of the armed forces, plurality of religion, diversity of language, lack of cohesiveness among the forces in the absence of a Chief of Staff to give a direction and purpose to such a venture et al. And, we who were under training then, continued to remain far removed from harboring any thoughts of some day subscribing to such a suggestion as that of participating in a coup, which would overthrow the democratically elected government and establish military Rule in the country. But today, the thought is perseveringly making an attempt to engage my mind with such a suggestion, only because the quality of polity in our country has stooped to such levels of venality that, a Military Rule could well be the only choice to resurrect governance and bring about discipline and accountability in public life. But, this comes with a rider, because the state of affairs which has engulfed the leadership in the biggest arm of the Military and which will necessarily remain the dominant force to bring about a coup, is itself under moral and ethical suspicion and therefore does not inspire the required confidence to deliver the people from the quagmire of a sham democratic republic, from which the people seek relief. As such the remedy may well be worse than the ailment. Anna Hazare, a veteran and a soldier has unambiguously made a bugle call against corruption and non governance and is heralding a democratic movement to prevail upon the elected representatives to bring a law which proceeds against all offenders, irrespective of their position and status. The mood of the public is rife with anger and wrath against an insensitive and corrupt government, which claims legitimacy under the provisos of the Constitution, but the very same parliamentarians and legislators who constitute the government are steeped in venality, crime and exploitation. It is a remote possibility that the fight for rectitude and probity in public life through social activism, will ever succeed in bringing about the desired changes to purge and cleanse the System.

The political masters have literally handed over governance to the bureaucrats in most states of the federation and in numerous ministries in the centre, and who in turn have arrogated unconstitutional authority to themselves in the subterfuge of civilian supremacy and made the System a handmaiden to their greed and growth. The politicians and the bureaucrats are today working hand in glove in wrongly and illegitimately acquiring wealth, which belongs to the public and continue to milk the Nation of its resources and assets. We all stand as mute spectators to this rapacious plunder of the Nation State and find ourselves helpless to the point of becoming wet noodles, spineless and directionless.  

Therefore, in an attempt to side with the patriots who are willing to martyr themselves for the cause of the Nation and its people, the Military could well do a great service to India by wresting the reins of authority from the civilian government and put it back on rails, to bring the impossible relief which the people are looking for through the civil society movements, which seem to be heading towards disaster. This suggestion is replete with many imponderables and will require a deliberate and determined effort by the three arms of the services, keeping in mind the security issues which engulf the country now and in the near future. The soldiers, who owe allegiance to the constitution of the country and the government, must rededicate themselves to the country and its martyrs, who made India into a Nation State.

PS – Some may consider this to be a tilt at the windmills, but the desperateness of the situation demands an equally desperate solution to a festering problem the country is burdened with. It’s a price which will not go waste, to bring about an enduring change. But the Military needs to watch out for similar untoward tendencies amidst its rank and file, lest the people rue Military Rule in a democratic republic of India.

Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal

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