New Delhi is planning something big that could deliver the deepest pain to its Minorities and keep the will of RSS to achieve an 'Akhand Bharat' progressive

By Shahid Shah 

The appointment of leadership in any military around the world is done very meticulously and after lot many deliberations, professional merit being one of the superior cardinals. 

Contrary to it, lately in India during BJP government times, criterion for selection of military leaders has mostly depended upon the level of Hindutva driven ultra-nationalistic fervour they possess and how much they can contribute towards accomplishing agenda of saffronization of Indian Army. 

The Hindutva regime under Prime Minister Modi is playing with fire by cherry picking the Generals who could support him in pursuing his fascist ideology. 

During the recent appointment of Indian Army Chief, out of all the strong contenders, Lt. Gen Manoj Pandey who was badly beaten in Ladakh at the hands of Chinese Military and is known to have a low professional acumen was selected and made Indian Army Chief. The selection was purely made on the level of extremism and Hindutva ideology he follows. 

General Manoj Pandey belongs to Nagpur, Maharashtra in India that is considered as the hub of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

RSS is a prominent Hindu supremacist organization which gave birth to the ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The General was born and raised among the perpetrators of hate crimes against the minorities of India and he shares the same values.

After his appointment as the Army Chief, the very first interview he gave to media has clarified one point that he will be following the jingoistic and hyper-war mongering tone during his tenure as COAS.

 He said while referring to Pakistan and LOC, "I must admit that in terms of reduction in terrorist infrastructure and terrorist training camps, neither is there any evidence nor are there any signs of that happening. Due to the success of our counter infiltration grid, from the other side, there is exploitation of the narco-terror nexus".

"In this nexus, you see cases of smuggling contraband items and weapons which is happening across the border in both Jammu Kashmir and further south," he claimed without any proof. 

"We are clear that if we see any act of terror or any hybrid threat in terms of infiltration, radicalisation through social media, then we are resolute to counter", the Indian COAS added. 

Accepting existence of so called infiltration from across the border is in itself a tight slap at the face of Indian Army and its leadership. Despite deploying almost a solider at every inch along LOC and with over million of its army deployed in IIOJK, above statements from the newly appointed chief of Indian military is nothing but embarrassment and acceptance of Indian military’s failure. 

It also makes one thing very clear that he has to appease his Hindutva driven ultra nationalistic cult headed by PM Modi by giving such jingoistic and anti Pakistan statements.

With this in background, he is likely to keep the LOC turbulent and aggravate situation in IIOJK by increasing the atrocities against the Muslims. 

Politicisation of Indian army under Gen Pande's command is likely to increase manifolds as to please Narendra Modi and justify his appointment as new COAS, Gen Pande is likely to go out of the way in fulfilling Modi’s political objectives by using Army as means to an end. 

Under his tenure as army chief, chances of false flag operations against Pakistan under pretext of so called cross border infiltration, are very much the possibility. It is envisaged that to draw attention away from ever increasing internal security challenges and impending genocide of Muslims and atrocities against other minorities, Gen Pande is likely to keep the situation on western border with Pakistan turbulent under one pretext or another and with China tense. 

This on one hand will help keep political support of BJP intact and charged up and on the other will divert attention of the world away from growing internal security problems and gross human rights violations. 

Gen Pande’s appointment despite being from nonfighting arm as COAS and the well over due pending appointment of new CDS are indicators that appointment of loyalists rather than professionals is very much what BJP government is looking at. 

India is planning something big that could deliver the deepest pain to its Minorities and keep the will of RSS to achieve an 'Akhand Bharat' progressive. Every card is being played maliciously to achieve a consensus for pursuing a fascist ideology. The new Army Chief of India is a very important part of that plot.

• Opinions expressed in this article are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The South Asia Times 
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