Nationalism subjugated to narrow political ends

A tweet by Salman Khurshid, while being part of the delegation of MPs to SE Asia, described the Indian political environment perfectly.

- HARSHA KAKAR

He tweeted, "When on a mission against terrorism, to carry India's message to the world, it's distressing that people at home are calculating political allegiances. Is it so difficult to be patriotic?" His questioning the patriotism of his party colleagues was not well accepted.

While he did elaborate on it later, it cut little ice. Some political parties expected their members to continue toeing the party line even when representing a unified India. Manish Tiwari followed Khurshid when he mentioned, "When it comes to India's self-respect, we all rise above party politics."

When questioned on what message he has for politicians in India, while leading his team to different countries, Shashi Tharoor mentioned, "Anybody who considers that working in the national interest is a sort of anti-party activity needs to question themselves rather than us." He added, "We are not here on a party-political mission. We are here as representatives of a united India." Congress spokesperson Udit Raj responded, "I could prevail upon PM Modi to declare you as super spokesperson of BJP."

In India everything is politics. The truth gets brushed aside, efforts of the armed forces in securing the most incredible victory in four days, against a nuclear power backed by China and Turkey, are sidelined, solely because the major battle is that of votes in forthcoming elections. While the ruling BJP will take credit for what happened - after all they are in power and took decisions as also faced possible risk of failure, which many previous governments failed to do - the opposition will seek excuses to deride the government. As is the norm, the armed forces will remain silent but hurt with constant mudslinging.