How's this for an op-ed headline: "Lt Samuel Kamalesan’s dismissal for religious stand shows colonial mindset. Army must end it"

Lt Gen (ret) H.S. Panag of the Indian Army has written this thoughtful column about a recent Supreme Court case involving religious observance in the armed forces. Excerpt:

Since around 1990, religion has been dominating the national discourse. It has polarised politics and society, and there has been a very assertive and visible resurgence of the majority religion in the public domain. The minorities, forever perceiving an existential threat, have followed suit.

Despite the younger generation of the armed forces being a product of this society, the macro-level secular military ethos, rules and regulations, and military law have prevented any adverse fallout, even with the flawed composition and religious practices.

However, there should be no doubt that the secular military ethos is under stress, which is compounded by the unethical conduct of a section of the military hierarchy.

Either for personal gains in the form of promotions or post-retirement benefits, or what is even more disturbing, due to conviction, a number of senior officers are publicly identifying with political ideology seeped in civilisational past and religion. They are literally in competition with each other to be seen in religious places, hobnobbing with religious leaders, linking military events to mythological religious past, and giving new religious names to organisations.

This is a very dangerous trend for an institution in which it is expected that a soldier shed his personal beliefs and identity to be subsumed by the organisation’s collective apolitical and secular ethos.