Whipping up a frenzy
FRONTLINE|October 28, 2016

The Hindutva brigade has taken it on itself to play political games with the “surgical strikes” across the LoC.

Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Whipping up a frenzy

IT IS CLASSIC SANGH PARIVAR DOUBLESPEAK once again in the case of political manoeuvres on the “surgical military strikes” on terror camps across the Line of Control (LoC) and in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Ministers’ press briefings and informal interactions, qualified by phrases such as “off the record” and “speaking on condition of anonymity”, assert that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly cautioned his Cabinet and party colleagues to observe “restraint” and “avoid flamboyance or chest-thumping” in their references to the military strikes. The argument, as leaked out by these sources, was that while the Modi-led National Demo cratic Alliance government has suitably avenged the Uri terrorist attack which killed 19 Indian jawans and that too in quick time, flamboyance and chest-thumping would vitiate the atmosphere at the social and political level. Once again, the effort was to project a statesmanlike image for the Prime Minister. But, on the ground, the name of the game for all Sangh Parivar outfits, from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the Bajrang Dal to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is outright flamboyance and chest-thumping.

This story is from the October 28, 2016 edition of FRONTLINE.

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This story is from the October 28, 2016 edition of FRONTLINE.

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