On December 8, an Indian Air Force Mi-17 V5 helicopter carrying General Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, and 13 others had a tragic crash that killed 13 persons on board. The mishap happened deep in the Nilgiris, some distance away from Wellington where the CDS was to deliver a talk.
A soon as the helicopter crash was reported, reports and speculations flooded media and social media. The visuals emerging from the scene were devastating, a chunk of the forest was charred, the burned, smashed remains of the helicopter were scattered and tree branches were being cut to recover the bodies. The nation was stunned. Air crashes have a very low survival rate and while some media reports stated that the CDS might be alive, badly injured, but alive, the country prayed, hoping against hope.
Amid all the prayers, shock and sadness being expressed at the tragic incident that involved the CDS, his wife, some high-ranking military officers and his security detail, some handles on social media revealed the ugly side of human nature.
Some people were busy scoring goals, showing off that they have the fastest access to inside information and some were displaying glee. Some were being plain a**holes, sharing useless oneliners about Karma and justice and such philosophies that people don’t really care about but use the vocabulary to make themselves appear smart. Here are some examples:
This is rather baffling. The CDS represents no political party, he is the chief of India’s armed forces, the soldiers who bleed and die to protect our freedom and sovereignty in a hostile neighbourhood. Why such lack of respect, or basic human sensitivity at the demise of the nation’s highest-ranked soldier? Why can’t some people at least be silent, and not show their naked hatred for one day? There are several reasons and several layers to this. Let us discuss.
The Modi Derangement Syndrome
The BJP’s win in 2014, and especially Narendra Modi winning the elections to become the Prime Minister of the country was a momentous shift in Indian society. A lot of things changed. It was a crude socio-political shock for a certain breed of Lutyens elite who thought the unwashed brown Indians know nothing, deserve only to be ruled over and will forever be under the boots of a chosen few who consider themselves entitled to power, wealth and positions.
All of that shock eventually knotted itself into hate for Modi. One can hate Modi for various reasons, but primarily it is just hatred for the man himself and what he represents.
The hatred for Modi can be triggered subconsciously by various reasons, such as hate for his religion, his ideology, his state, his party etc. But behind all this, is the hater’s deep dislike is for the man and that hate makes people go really dumb. We have seen this manifest a number of times. There have been politicians hating Gujarat, news anchors, self-proclaimed ‘liberals’ hating India’s space mission or hating the Digital India drive, the Make In India campaign, even something as basic as highways and railways. But behind the stupid mockery of Modi’s welfare schemes, the dumb deriding of India’s achievements and all the ways these people expose their own ridiculously narrow mindsets is just hatred, hatred for one man, Narendra Damodardas Modi.
Hating the idea of a strong, self-reliant India
Ironically, those who shout the most about the so-called ‘Idea of India’, and its social fabric are the ones who fall into this category because basically, they hate the idea of an India that doesn’t obey their myopic definitions of ‘secularism’ and ‘progress’. In a nutshell, they hate the idea of an India that is Hindu and is not ashamed of its civilisational roots. These haters fall into different subcategories but primarily, they all have a problem with the ‘Hindu’ nature of India. They want to strip India of its civilisational identity because that identity is Hindu. They want to strip India of its Hindu ethos.
General Bipin Rawat was not the typical wine-sipping anglophile. He did not bow down to the Italian lady. He did not hate Modi enough. He did not hail Naxal sympathisers and pseudo activists. General Rawat did not use fancy talking points of ‘woke’ sentiments that hog international headlines. He touched the feet of the widow of martyr Abdul Hamid, he visited temples and even wore Tilak on his forehead. That is not something these haters will ever accept.
Memories are all we have to tide over awful days.
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) December 8, 2021
Here's one I will remember Gen Bipin Rawat by. He had gone to Dhamupur to unveil PVC Abdul Hamid's bust when he spotted the legend's widow Rasulan Bibi. He bowed and touched her feet. "You are the son we never had," she told him. pic.twitter.com/c5Io5fcEki
Transnational ideologies
Modern India is facing a clash of ideologies. It is Hindutva Vs everything else. The Hindutva or the Hindu identity of India believes in a civilisational nation-state that is rooted in its faith, the land that finds mention in Mahabharata and Ramayana, the ‘Akhand Bharat’. The ideologies that are clashing with Hindutva claim that no such nation exists. Starting from the communists to Islamists to the modern “wokes” or even Khalistanis, the civilisational identity of India that manifests itself across the geographical entity makes no sense.
Islamists believe only in the ‘Ummah’ or the global Islamic brotherhood. The idea of India as a civilisational nation-state is a direct antithesis to their beliefs. The communists do not believe in that civilisational identity either, and the Khalistanis are Pakistani stooges who want to carve another chunk from the already partitioned India. The “wokes” are well, the clueless parrots of Western ideas who scoff at the idea of a ‘Hindu’ India.
For the Indian armed forces, however, these geographical boundaries are sacrosanct. They bleed and die for those borders and India’s geopolitical identity is what they are sworn to protect. The armed forces protect and guard the very same boundaries that these entities want to make obsolete. Hence, the patriotic, steadfast, strong Indian soldier is their nemesis. They celebrate stones being pelted at the soldiers, they want them lynched and they just cannot contain their glee when a violent helicopter crash kills the top soldier, along with his staff.
Remember how the so-called ‘leftsists’ had called for the blood of Major Leetul Gogoi when he had tied a stone pelter to an Army jeep, as a means to protect his team from the murderous mob that was out to kill them? Well, it was general Bipin Rawat who had stated firmly that he won’t ask his soldiers to wait and die while facing stone pelters.
General Rawat had called stone pelters as overground workers of terrorists, multiple times. He had also defended the soldiers and usage of pellet guns. He had spearheaded two surgical strikes, one at India’s eastern front and one on the western front. General Bipin Rawat represented the ‘idea of India’ in its boldest, fiercest form. It is no wonder that Islamists, communists and so-called ‘secular liberals’ hate him.
Subnational subversive ideologies: Hoping for the Balkanisation of India
There is also a group of people and parties who propagate sub-national subversive ideologies. They believe in the Balkanisation of India where a Bengali CM calls Gujaratis ‘outsiders’ and the Tamil leader claims they do not believe in India as a unified nation, representing a unified people with unified goals.
These people want to carve out a Dravidanadu, a Khalistan, and Gods know how many pieces of India. They peddle regionalism and regional hatred, they fail to understand that the diverse cultural hues of India are the best indicators of India’s vibrant democracy and instead, to fulfil their own political ambitions, spread hatred among states.
Bipin Rawat represented the armed forces, who stand to repel such notions, who transcend regional identities, and where the Bihar Regiment soldiers did not hesitate for a moment before facing Chinese troops with bare hands when they learn that their CO named B Santhosh Babu who came from Andhra, has been harmed.
#WATCH– Mortal remains of Defence personnel, who passed away in a helicopter crash in Coonoor on Wednesday, crosses Mettupalayam area in Tamil Nadu.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 9, 2021
People can be seen paying their last respects. #IAFChopperCrash #GeneralRawatNoMore pic.twitter.com/NConCXDW65
Just a look at the Tamil people shouting ‘Veera Vanakkam’, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and showering flower petals on the convoy carrying the mortal remains of deceased soldiers who were named Rawat, Singh, Das, Chauhan etc will tell you why the ‘haters’ hate General Bipin Rawat and everything he stood for.
The sold-out snitches
There is also of course the group of sold-out ones. We have seen how some of the ‘intellectuals’ peddle the Chinese version of events and propagate the Chinese propaganda gleefully. There are some people who hate to see India manufacturing its own defence equipment and buying without involving the usual ‘dealers’. There are some individuals who had been expecting a change of leadership at both political and military levels so they can go back to their days of sweetheart deals and benefits.
General Rawat is said to have dismantled the ‘Chandigarh lobby’ that benefitted from shady arms deals. We may not know all the details but there lie several million dollars and several million reasons for some people to hate Gen Rawat.
