A Conspiracy Theory About Modi, Ramdev and Gen. V. K. Singh

In March 2012, I equated General V. K. Singh with the infamous Mir Qasim, whose hunger for power made him an ally of the British as they maneuvered to take control of Bengal in the 18th Century.

It seemed to me that Singh's dash to London immediately after losing a graceless bid to stay a year longer in office pointed, at the very least, to involvement in helping Britain land a major arms contract. His subsequent letter to the Prime Minister declaring India scandalously deficient in military preparedness tended to confirm that reading.

It now turns out that Singh was engaged in something much more treasonous.

A military panel that looked into his activities as Chief of Army Staff (2010 to 2012), has reported that he set up an unauthorized surveillance unit in Delhi to spy on the Defence Minister, and that he misused official funds to try and unseat Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Kashmir. It has recommended a full-blown criminal investigation.

More must be done, for there are clear signs that the matter is not one of individual malfeasance but of high-level and dangerous political conspiracy. Items:

• The BJP's sudden rush to declare Narendra Modi its Prime Ministerial candidate was patently irrational in the face of serious opposition within the party and concerns about his involvement in the Gujarat killings of 2002. It makes sense only if someone promised an enormous amount of money to buy the 2014 elections and soothe inflated/bruised egos within the BJP.

• The pressure to declare Modi the candidate reportedly came from the RSS and Baba Ramdev. That twinning is significant, for Baba Ramdev has been going around the country meeting with RSS activists, evidently pursuing his dream of a fascist political party in India. As I reported in 2011, Ramdev is a shady multimillionaire who owns an island off Scotland, ideally suited for support from British military intelligence in developing the muscle necessary for that effort. In June 2011, after his "fast unto death" in Delhi turned into comic opera and he was hustled back to Haridwar, Ramdev told the Press he could field an armed force in support of his demands

•  Two days after becoming the BJP's 2014 face, Modi appeared with General Singh at a rally in Haryana. This allowed Singh to claim that the leaking of the report by the military panel was punishment for his appearance with Modi. I think it's the other way round: Modi was hastily declared the BJP candidate to allow Singh to make that claim. This points to the possibility that Singh has a weightier role than generally perceived in the conspiracy that is taking shape. Could he be in operational charge of Ramdev's shock troops? Could the British be planning a Hindutva terrorist force in Kashmir with an eye to sparking a larger Indo-Pak conflagration? Modi's bully-boy remarks about Pakistan might not be bluster.

• Baba Ramdev's eight-hour detention at London's Heathrow airport on a "visa issue" was perfect cover for arranging how exactly MI-6 will fund the conspiracy. Modi's television appeal to the Indian diaspora to support him indicates that they have agreed to use the trusty "donations from Rich Hindus abroad" channel. Last time around, "Rich Hindus abroad" ostensibly funded the Ayodhya campaign (which Modi reportedly managed), and before that, "Rich Sikhs" were alleged to be supportive of terrorism in the Punjab. Muzaffarnagar is a clear indication of how British funding will be used to skew the 2014 elections. (Ramdev's detention at Heathrow is being blamed on a "terror suspect" tag surreptitiously attached to his passport by Indian authorities; I don't buy it.)

Civil Society Response  

If what I fear turns real we could be facing a communal situation comparable to the Partition era. With that prospect in view, anti-communal activists cannot just be a Greek Chorus commenting on tragedies they are unable to prevent. I think the situation calls for a determined civil society effort to create a national early warning and response system. A computerized network keeping tabs on potential trouble spots and sending out national alerts would allow timely peace efforts and police action. It could stymie any effort to systematically use communal trouble to polarize the electorate.