I have immense respect and love towards all those in the Army who safeguard me and my country. But there is great danger in saying patriotism/nationalism is equivalent to loving the state's Army.
Army is only a faculty (a part) that should act obediently under a strong democracy. Countries that fed that "sleeping snake" by unnecessarily praising, pampering and giving it more power than it should ideally have, have ended up digging their own pit.
To know this, we needn't go too far from our country - just take a look at our neighbours. Still, to munch on while resting, of course with drinks, after writing a blog post, let me give you some names of countries that rose to power using its armed forces. You will be easily reminded of the history. Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Marshal Tito, Colonel Gaddafi, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush, Zia ul Haque, Pervez Musharraf - all of them were excellent patriots.
(This post first appeared on the writer's Facebook page. It was translated from Malayalam to English by Vivek Surendran.)