Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 8 May, addressing a political rally in Delhi claimed that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi used aircraft carrier INS Viraat as his “personal taxi” for a holiday.
Naval officers including the then commanding officer of INS Viraat, Vice Admiral Vinod Pasricha (Retd) and former Navy Chief Admiral Ramdas (Retd), eyewitnesses to the said trip, have refuted PM Modi’s allegations.
However, for PM Modi, everyone but himself is to be looked at with a critical eye. He himself has exploited the Indian armed forces for various purposes ranging from raising money for the BJP and to ask for votes.
Also Read: 10 Years Of Risking My Life For This Country, Modi Says I Played Video Games: Retired Colonel
Here are five times from recent memory when the Prime Minister used the army for personal purposes.
Using Pulwama martyrs’ to solicit votes:
On May 9, PM Modi had said, “Take a pledge, the first vote you are going to cast, I ask, can your first vote be dedicated to the soldiers who were behind the Balakot airstrike?… Can your first vote be dedicated to the soldiers martyred in the Pulwama attack?…”
The election commission (EC) took a lenient view of the infraction. They overruled their own officer and used a technical ground to explain away that PM Modi did not specifically ask for votes to be deposited to him or his political party the BJP.
But would he ask people to vote for anyone else?
Paying the Indian Air Force only Rs 1.4 Crore for 240 Non official trips
The BJP paid Rs 744 for a ‘H/P Balangir-H/P Patharchera’ trip undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 15, 2019, as per a report by Vijayta Lalwani in Scroll, based on information received from the IAF under the RTI. The route in Balangir district of Odisha is not commercially linked.
For a “Chandigarh-Shimla-Annadale-Chandigarh” trip on April 27, 2017 the BJP just spent Rs 845.
For scale, the one-way rate for commercial flights from Chandigarh to Shimla is between Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000.
Why the unreasonably low rates for a someone who has described himself as the ‘pradhan sevak’? Wouldn’t these rates have accrued the IAF a loss?
The RTI response from IAF only stated that Modi used aircraft like “BBJ (Boeing Business Jet) and MI-17 (VVIP) [a helicopter]”. The per passenger, per kilometre rate was not mentioned, hence it was not possible to calculate if the right price was charged.
Scroll report also cited a March 2018 notification which mentions the recovery rate per flying hour for the Boeing Business Jet at Rs 14.7 lakh and Rs 4.3 lakh for the MI-17 helicopter.
Donate to BJP, we have Modi posing with Indian Army soldiers:
Before the 2019 election cycle could even commence, the ruling BJP used pictures of PM Modi wearing sunglasses and posing with the Indian army to ask for donations through the Narendra Modi Mobile App.
The picture of the PM’s photo-op with the army men as just a backdrop to stir patriotic feelings among its donors were accompanied by the caption, “He works for them. Stand with him to secure India. Donate now to support NAMO again in 2019.”
‘Modiji ki Sena’
BJP President Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath have referred to the IAF and the Indian army as Modi’s personal forces.
At a rally in Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Adityanath had said, “Congress leaders would feed biryani to terrorists, while Modi’s army gives them bullets and bombs.”
Shah, at a rally in Krishnanagar, West Bengal on April 22, said that Modi “sent his airforce” to conduct airstrikes in Balakot. “Forty-four of jawans were martyred in Pulwama terror attack. Earlier, nothing used to happen after such incidents. Narendra Modi ordered his Air Force on the 13th day (of the incident) and our aircraft blew the terrorists to pieces in Pakistan,” he had said.
The intent behind such claims are simply to portray the work of the armed forces as Modi’s personal achievements, and then encash it in the form of votes for the BJP, and thereby, political power.
Despite several veterans protesting such politicisation, PM Modi and BJP leaders have not stopped making such references
Taking favourite Bollywood celebrities to India’s largest military event:
Akshay Kumar, Twinkle Khanna and Kangana Ranaut were reportedly invited to the International Fleet Review (IFR) at Visakhapatnam in January 2016.
The fleet review brings together 50 countries, 99 ships, 24 foreign warships and 4,000 sailors. The event is considered India’s largest military exercise, and hence, the Prime Minister thought it was the perfect opportunity to mingle with the glitterati and felicitate them?
Furthermore, Akshay Kumar recently cleared the speculation around his citizenship by admitting that he holds a Canadian passport. He is also seen to be close to the regime, as evidenced by the exclusive ‘non-political’ interview.
Defence minister at the time Manohar Parrikar also had to backpedal certain claims by saying that Kumar and Ranaut “were not brand ambassadors” for the IFR. No contract was signed and they were simply “invitees” to the event, he had said.
How could the PM give a Canadian citizen a ride on the presidential yacht INS Sumitra, along with naval chiefs and other VVIPs? Kangana Ranaut, who has won a national award, is also a vocal supporter of the BJP regime and its brand of nationalism. Was this invitation some form of a reward for the celebrities’ loyalty?
Also Read: PM Modi Took Canadian Citizen Akshay Kumar Aboard INS Sumitra: Congress’ Divya Spandana