Surgical strikes by the Indian army are set to affect the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Military operations, in or outside the country, are armed expressions of political intent. Against Pakistan, they also symbolise political will, celebrated and applauded all around. This template boosted Lal Bahadur Shastri’s stature after 1965, transformed Indira Gandhi into a ‘Durga re-incarnate’ in 1971 and gave Atal Behari Vajpayee five more years in power after Kargil.
Against this backdrop, the surgical strikes of September 29 can’t but be political in nature. BJP leaders have hailed the strikes, claiming that Pakistan has been taught a lesson. And posters lavishing praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi have sprung up all over in no time in poll-bound UP. In some of them, he is shown holding a bow and an arrow.
The matter has become all the more politicised following Modi’s Dussehra address at Aishbagh in Lucknow. The PM exhorted all Indians to “watch every move of terrorists”, then punctured the claims of the Congress that it had been tough on terror. Referring to the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which took place during the UPA regime, he said, “It is only after 26/11 that the world understood how horrific the terrorism we faced was.”
On the same day, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat referred to India’s military might in his Dussehra address in Nagpur, in which he also backed the controversial gauraksha dals, or cow protection groups, which have of late become active in many villages of north India.
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