India as a deep state?

Is India emerging as a deep state? Is political pluralism in the world’s largest democracy at stake because of threats faced by the civil society from state institutions in the name of patriotism and national security? Since the assumption of power by Narendra Modi after the 2014 general elections, the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) has penetrated in the Indian Intelligence Bureau and other national security organs with a purpose to silence its opponents, build narrative about the reality of Hindu nationalism and establish the tutelage of Bharatiya Janata Party under Modi.

Deep state means a state where some of the state institutions like the military and intelligence agencies run the affairs of the country and prevent any dissent or opposition to the state narrative. It can also be called as a state within a state. Turkey was once called a deep state where the military for a long period of time imposed its tutelage and used coercive measures against those who challenged the authoritarian culture. A deep state may be democratic in nature, but has marginal tolerance to hear the voices of dissent and opposition to the dominant state narrative and uses the acts of coercion, suppression, threats, arrests, espionage and curbing all sorts of criticism. For that purpose, the ruling party uses state organs to conduct surveillance of activities of those who are considered a threat to state’s imposed ideology.

Year 1975 is one example of India’s deviation from the democratic path when an emergency was imposed by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, who then lost the general elections held in 1977 because of her authoritarian acts. In view of political pluralism, vibrant civil society and strong democratic institutions, the possibility of India emerging as a deep state was remote, but in the recent past there are solid indications that authoritarian forces under the garb of patriotism and national security are curbing freedom of speech and dissent in the country. Intelligence Bureau (IB) of India is now called a ‘super state’ which receives its directives from the RSS. Prashant Bhusan, a senior advocate of the Indian Supreme Court, recently in his address at the Oxford Union Society vividly explained how non-conformists in India are being silenced, attacked, arrested and lynched by the goons having the patronage of Narendra Modi and his fascist henchmen.

Why Narendra Modi and his likeminded communal hawkish colleagues want India to be a deep state? To what extent the results of recent general elections of India reinforce the narrative that India is transforming from a democratic and secular state into a deep state where the ruling party’s ally RSS, along with Shiv Sena and with IB’s assistance, is imposing a nationalist-extremist narrative? Will the deep state reinforce the power of the ‘Brahman’ class and further marginalise those who want their country to retain democratic, tolerant and secular way to life? These are the questions which are raised by those who are concerned about the future of Indian state in the post-election period and apprehend authoritarian forces under the garb of patriotism and Hindu nationalism depriving people of freedom of speech and dissent.

One can figure out three indicators to prove how and why India is transforming into a deep state and how such a change will drastically alter the largest democracy of the world. First, the nexus between the RSS and the Indian state, particularly the Intelligence Bureau, is getting deeper and deeper with the passage of time. The RSS is an offshoot of Jan Sangh, a pre-partition Hindu communal organisation whose task is to promote the cause of Hindutva and Hinduism. The RSS, which has to its disposal a cadre of youth trained to silence those who vehemently oppose the essence of BJP’s ideology to transform India into a Hindu state. Non-conformist elements in the media, academia, politics and other segments of intelligentsia are to be silenced by acts of coercion. Formed on the pattern of Nazi Germany’s Schutzstaffel storm troopers who unleashed a reign of terror against Jews, communists and opponents of Nazi ideology, the RSS and Shiv Sena get regular military training in their cadet colleges and are later inducted into the Indian police, military and paramilitary force.

Secular-minded students and teachers are their targets as many of the Indian universities, including the premier centre of learning like Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, witnessed the penetration of extreme right wing forces, including the RSS, as it established its hold among the student and teaching community. Beating and harassment of moderate, secular left wing students and teachers has become quite common in various Indian educational institutions.

Second, the regimentation of Indian society and state by raising the slogan of Hindu nationalism got an impetus when the BJP and its communal organisations Shiv Sena/RSS were able to penetrate in India’s institutional structure. When Modi proudly said that he and his party would erase the symbols of one thousand years of foreign rule (850 years of Muslim and 150 years of British), he was very clear to reclaim the glory of Hindu state which existed before the Muslim tutelage in the Indian sub-continent. Changing the names of Indian cities and roads which reflected Muslim heritage means how deep the BJP, the RSS and Shiv Sena have gone in transforming India into a Hindu state. Third, the Indian military, which used to be under the strict civilian control, is now lately asserting its position on political matters that should be better left to the political leadership of a country.

The role of Indian Army today in the policymaking process is not submissive as it has several times vetoed the decision of its prime ministers, particularly related to Pakistan. When in June 1989, then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi after having a dialogue with his Pakistani counterpart Benazir Bhutto agreed to a settlement on the Siachen issue, the Indian Army refused to accept the deal. During the tenure of the former prime minister Manmohan Singh, there were efforts for demilitarisation of the Siachen region but the Indian Army vetoed such a proposal. General Bikram Singh, former Indian chief of Army, stated on September 12, 2012, “We have lost a lot of lives in those areas (Siachen). A lot of blood has been shed to occupy those positions (on the Saltoro Ridge). Those positions are of strategic importance to us and we have given our concerns to the government. Now it is for the government to decide.”

With the weightage given to the Indian military and the security establishment, India is fast moving towards becoming a deep state at the expense of its democratic institutions and values of freedom of speech and expression.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2019.

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