Deep State: Who represents it in India
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
Of late, there has been a lot of hue and cry about the term ‘Deep State’. The term, writes Sanjeev Chopra (former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) “first gained wide currency in the context of Türkiye as derin devlet, which literally translates to ‘deep state’ in English. In Türkiye, it refers to a non-elected military elite dominating elected governments, especially when they attempt to dismantle the secular foundations of the Republic, established by Mustafa Kemal Pasha after the abolition of the caliphate in 1923.”
In Pakistan, 'deep state’ refers to a government controlled by powerful military leaders.
In the US, Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of controlling the ‘deep state.’ Democrats claim the pro-Republican arms lobby and military-industrial complex constitute the deep state, while Republicans argue that Ivy League universities promote ‘wokeism’ and diversity, equity, and inclusion narratives that, according to Donald Trump, undermine America’s greatness. Ultimately, writes Chopra, “the deep state serves as a convenient scapegoat for anything that goes wrong or for political parties losing popular support.”
The Deep State in India
While Republicans and Democrats are battling it out in Washington, “India faces a similar scenario, with Left liberals and Right nationalists accusing each other of leveraging the ‘deep state’ to gain or retain power….. Left liberals claim the RSS is India’s deep state, while Right nationalists accuse the Ford Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations of attempting to discredit the democratically elected Modi government. Left liberals find support in the speeches of Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, while Right nationalists….vehemently counter these claims.”
Economist Surjit Bhalla, a former member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council, alleged that India’s deep state comprises ‘major industrialists, senior IAS ‘babus’ (officials), and their friendly influencers in the media’, slowing down economic growth. This claim was firmly repudiated by Vivek Kaul in Newslaundry, who argued that neither the IAS, corporates, nor the media benefit from economic deceleration. Instead, he pointed out that the real cause of economic slowdown is the compulsion of all political parties—BJP, Congress, and AAP—to allocate budgetary resources to freebies rather than long-term investments in social and physical infrastructure, which are crucial for sustained economic growth.
Journalist Josy Joseph, in his book The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State, argues that the deep state is actually led by the IPS (Indian Police Service). He claims that in the name of combating terrorism in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and the Northeast, as well as ‘Left-wing extremism’ (LWE) in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh, the triumvirate of the NIA, CBI, and ED have consolidated unchecked power, with neither the legislature nor the judiciary exercising adequate oversight.
Weaponisation of soft power
Sandhya Ravishankar, news editor at NDTV Profit argues that global NGOs and foreign funding agencies have attempted to damage India’s international reputation by supporting anti-CAA protests and farmers’ agitations against the farm laws. She alleges that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) received $47 million from the US Deep State to produce investigative reports targeting governments opposed by Washington—a charge firmly denied by the US Embassy in New Delhi.
She lists organisations such as the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (led by Maja Daruwala, daughter of the legendary Sam Manekshaw), the Indian Police Foundation (chaired by celebrated police officer Prakash Singh), the Centre for Policy Research (affiliated with Yamini Aiyar and Pratap Bhanu Mehta), and the National Foundation of India as key actors producing reports that allegedly undermine India’s prestige on the global stage. She describes this phenomenon as the ‘weaponisation of soft power.’
RSS, power politics, and the Deep State
The Deep State, according to Chopra “is sometimes linked to the ‘weaponisation’ of soft power. And if soft power is the name of the game, then the organisation most adept at it is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.”
Established a hundred years ago (on Vijaya Dashami 1925) in Nagpur, the RSS’s influence has spread far and wide.
Chopra argues that the “Deep State has to be seen through the lens of power politics. In fact, the elements said to constitute the Deep State actually operate through informal networks and express themselves through soft power.
