Cool Indica

War, says history, is a nationalist's vitamin. The rhetoric of war is his instrument of mobilisation. The frenzy of war is an input to su...

June 1, 1999 12:00 AM IST

4 min read

War, says history, is a nationalist8217;s vitamin. The rhetoric of war is his instrument of mobilisation. The frenzy of war is an input to survival. War, in the time of desperation, in the absence of a beguiling slogan, gives peace of mind. Look around: Slobodan Milosevic needs that war, that bloody war of Kosovo, as an enriched diet for the Serbian nationalist, as a source of martyrdom for a historical cause, as a great unifier; or Saddam Hussain, who has turned every cruise missile from the evil country into a divine mandate for further Saddamisation of Iraq; or examples from Pyongyang and Havana, places where the Enemy is an absolute necessity for the immortality of the ruler, who is only the enemy of his own people. India is not at war, though the smell of gunpowder from Kargil is enveloping the whole nation. The enemy has shot down Indian fighter planes. One pilot was taken POW and another was killed. Territory was occupied. The enemy is up to something sinister. And, of course, the Government of India isled by, as the international Press is so fond of saying, a Hindu nationalist party. In the classical tradition of war and nationalism, this is a perfect text for politically engineered frenzy and mobilisation. It has not happened. Prime Minister Vajpayee has defied the stereotype. This maturity, this cool-headed sense of responsibility, deserves to be applauded and appreciated.

This is exceptionally good news because one wrong word, one wrong gesture, could have set off another peripheral war of raw jingoism within the country. A nationalistically self-serving war for the nationalist party. The BJP could have turned Kargil into a rallying cry of wounded nationhood. It could have made maximum political capital out of the Pak demon. On the eve of a general election, Kargil could have been a perfect war cry for a desperate nationalist government. And the BJP, or at least some sections of the Sangh Parivar, is capable of tapping the rich vein of nationalist passion. On such occasions the BJP leadership hadshown only its eagerness to make the best political use of such situations. Today, when the Prime Minister speaks Kargil, there is restraint, which is a sign of confidence, of statesmanship. The rhetoric of the enemy is coming, wake up the nation!8217; is not there. Vajpayee betrays no nationalist desperation. It is Cool Indica.

So the BJP knows what it takes to be a responsible party of governance. More important, Vajpayee knows that Kargil is not a subject of partisan politics, that the limited territorial war in Kargil cannot be subordinated to the electoral expediency of one political party. Since this redeeming realisation comes from a nationalist prime minister, it only enhances the image of India as a confident nation that requires no inflammable enemy-rhetoric to deal with the enemy. Also, Vajpayee8217;s refusal to politicise Kargil enhances the politics of his party. What is happening is a dangerous face-off between two nuclear powers, and one of them is a democratically underdeveloped nation whereparanoia is called India. Now, it is amply clear that the other one is a democratically matured nation whose strength cannot be measured in firepower alone. The power is managed by a leader who refuses to hawk the Enemy in the political market. This is more than a personal victory of the moderate Vajpayee. His triumph is in defying the stereotype of the nationalist ruler in search of a war. The Indian Prime Minister has shown that the national interest can be served without being self-servingly nationalistic.

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