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22 January 2015

View from the right: Republic day

January 22, 2015 

The Republic Day special issue of the Organiser urges the country to assess whether it lacks a strategic culture and calls for efforts to build one. Pointing out that India had a tradition of grand strategic thinking, as reflected in the Arthashastra and the Mahabharata, the editorial says, “unfortunately, after Independence, while tuning to the Western new nation-state system, we did not make any effort to build our own strategic culture based on our civilisational heritage. At the best, we tried to throw some idealist rhetoric to Western realist paradigms.” It argues that Bheeshma and Krishna embody strategic thinking.

The Organiser also cautions that India, which has arrived on the global stage, should understand potential threats and how those can be mitigated. When the world is talking about India, the country should “think in tune with” its civilisational wisdom: “Realist power equations should be mastered and managed in such a way that Indian ideals are not only accepted but also protected globally… For this… threats to our existence, external and internal, should be identified. Human, economic, military resources should be marshalled in such a way that future threats are annulled even before arriving.”

SECURITY SILENCE

The Panchjanya editorial, in the special Republic Day issue, argues that national security has been dealt with half-heartedly by Indian governments. What should have been solved using logic and political skill, has often been dealt with keeping political calculations in mind. It argues that, in 67 years of Indian democracy, priorities have been set as per the convenience of political parties rather than the national interest. In the 1962 war, land measuring 40,000 sq km was captured by China. We still do not know how many Indian soldiers were killed in that war. While the bravery of the likes of Major Shaitan Singh Bhati and his colleagues was incomparable, have Indian leaders shown the firmness expected of them? The editorial also takes a swipe at Jawaharlal Nehru for his remark that “the land was barren” when the matter was raised in the country’s biggest “court room” — Parliament.

It also states that the country has suffered because matters of national interest were subject to a political tug of war. Concerns relating to national security are not just limited to nuclear-armed neighbours but also include border tension, terror sponsored by neighbours and fundamentalists gaining ground within the country. Not much has been said or heard on these issues so far, and the editorial says it is imperative that the decades-long silence on internal security be broken.

MEDIA & MODI

An article in the Malayalam Kesari blames the national media for “going after fringe elements” in order to criticise and find fault with the Narendra Modi government. According to the article — written by R. Balashankar, convenor of the BJP’s Intellectual Cell — the media and the parliamentary opposition have been trying to “blackmail” a government that came to power with popular support: “Usually, at the end of the year, television channels nominate certain personalities to be named as person of the year, but this year no such survey was done — maybe because it was the BJP and Narendra Modi who created history in 2014…”

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