National Threat

There are those who condemn the ‘nationalistic’ approach to politics as though it is a great crime. Anybody speaking of the nation as an entity with its particular needs is immediately condemned as a fascist and comparisons made with Hitler, et al. The proletariat’s individual needs are touted as paramount and the nation treated like the teat from which eternal bounties flow, irrespective of what contribution has been made by its constituents. Unfortunately, as Wednesday’s Maoist attack on security forces in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, shows, the nation faces threats that cannot be countered unless it responds in a united and comprehensive manner. Existential threats posed by totalitarian ideologies such as Maoism, Islamism and Racism cannot be combated in a bits and pieces manner. There has to be a comprehensive approach, which begins with an abiding commitment to the underlying principles of the nation under attack.
Unfortunately, at the present, even for such important objectives, India’s political establishment fails to come together with the sincerity required. At best, lip service is offered at times of crisis but, depending on the political inclination, an event is looked at from the point of view of what advantages it might offer this or that ideology. This inability to put the nation first in a country that has been independent for a mere seventy-two years betrays the spirit of the freedom fighters who risked their all in the most noble way for the privilege of being a united people and a democracy.
The unwillingness of many to see the immediacy of the threat simply because they remain ensconced in privilege – acquired ironically in the name of ‘serving’ the ‘poor’ people – poses a danger much greater than any overzealous nationalism can. Much is spoken of India’s diversity, but few seem to understand the essential unity that flows from a civilisational process going back thousands of years, even before recorded history. Those who attack the Indian State also undermine the depth and scope of that process, which is essential to the people’s very existence. Without a definite purpose or principle, India cannot rise in the other important economic and social spheres. It is necessary, therefore, to have a leadership that can see the issues in their entirety instead of being caught in the trap of a political correctness superimposed by an artificial and alien mindset. The fifteen security personnel who died in Gadchiroli died for the nation – those who attacked them were ‘anti-nationals’. Can there be any difficulty in making that distinction?