THE first-rung leadership of Independent India was understandably wary of the armed forces. The men and the institutions were handed down unaltered by the British who not too far back were utilising these very resources to stifle the Independence movement. The army-led takeovers in Pakistan and Myanmar added to their wariness. Without patriotism as a mobilising tool, Nehru’s post-colonial nationalism comprised an inclusive  Indianness in communion with a wider community of recently  liberated nation. Military and its valour as mobilising elements were incorporated after the eye opener in the 1962 war. Since then, politicians have experienced electoral joy in invoking the military: two stellar examples are Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan of Jai Jawan Jai Kisan and Indira being equated with Durga for the dissection of Pakistan.

But not even the Vajpayee government, with a similar DNA as the current dispensation, had not gone so grossly over the top. Perhaps they are banking on the proverbial short memory to eulogise a military operation that pales before the many acts of valour by the Indian armed forces since Independence. No wonder the serving and former military officers, who know better, have been uneasy about this naked display of political upmanship. The videos streaming out of our urban centres confirm the apprehension that the idea was to use the soldier as a prop for the BJP’s political propaganda. Pakistan next door offers a vivid example of what happens when the lines between the military and the civilian sphere are consciously blurred. The public display of militarised religious symbolism, Pakistan found out, was one of the major means for the promotion of the culture of militancy and radicalisation. South Block’s enrolment of the army as a proxy election campaigner will not just shortchange the electorate by glossing over the more critical bread and butter issues. Rajnath Singh had found his attempt to become the UP chief minister badly derailed after the BJP once too often whipped up patriotic frenzy over the Kargil war. Elections are still at a distance and the danger of overkill is a likely possibility.