Webdesk: When a country’s prime minister glorifies technology, weapons, drones, rockets, and military exercises as symbols of national pride, it’s a sign that the nation may not be progressing, but heading toward destruction.
Today, India finds itself at such a crossroads under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Modi-led government has turned India into a torchbearer of militarism, regularly seizing opportunities to provoke and destabilise the region.
The recent manifestation of this military fascination is an event to be held next June in Himachal Pradesh dubbed Surya Dronathan and the theme of this event is based on war.
It will include drone flights, drone target practice and showcase of highly sophisticated weapons.
But it raises a pressing question: Is this really the priority for India? Is this the “New India” that was promised to its citizens?
While the government invests heavily in defence displays, over 220 million Indians continue to live below the poverty line.
Millions of children are out of school, youth unemployment is surging, and farmers across the country are drowning in debt, many driven to suicide.
Yet the Modi government chooses to focus its energy and resources on projecting India as a “drone power” to the world.
When a state government is willing to spend millions just to fly drones in the mountains, questions must be asked: Has India become a war showroom?
Organising such a military display in Spiti Valley, an ecologically sensitive region where many villages still lack basic health and electricity infrastructure, reflects skewed priorities, not strategic wisdom.
Spectacle or insult to public?
This drone display is an extension of a larger theme advanced by the Modi regime, a regime that believes no challenge to India, whether it is the challenge of China or feeling threatened by Pakistan, can be overcome without a military response.
Real issues such as inflation, joblessness, healthcare, and education are sidelined in favour of aggressive nationalism and religious fervour.
It is a strategy commonly employed by authoritarian governments: feed the public emotional slogans, manufacture enemies, and suppress genuine questions. If a nation must choose between buying drones or educating its children, what would a civilised country prioritise?
Modi’s government, however, has made its choices clear, it honours military officers over scientists, promotes loud anchors over teachers, and offers militaristic pride instead of food security.
Events like Surya Dronathan may whip up temporary patriotic sentiment, but they won’t feed the hungry, provide employment to the jobless, or address farmers’ cries for help. India needs wisdom, not weaponry.
In a country facing enormous socio-economic challenges, glorifying war machines while ignoring basic public needs isn’t patriotism, it’s propaganda.
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