Arrest of Lt. Col. is an alarm bell

Hindu extremists call themselves “nationalist” and extremists of other breeds “secessionist” and “anti-national”. This is a grotesque inversion of democratic logic, especially in a country of such bewildering diversity as India. The message should be clear: if we don’t hang together, we’ll hang separately. If incursion of the extreme tendencies among the majority community into the armed forces is not eradicated with a firm hand in the incipient stage, the prognosis can be unnerving. This is how the seizure of power by unconstitutional elements began in Pakistan and in most of the dictatorships in West Asia and elsewhere. All in the name of nationalism.