Liberals accuse NSA Doval of supporting BJP

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval opined at an event that India needs a strong, stable and decisive government for the next 10 years to achieve its political, economic and strategic objectives. He also stated that, “weak coalitions will be bad” for the country. Doval made this statement when he was delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture. He also claimed that in the past four years, the country’s ‘national will’ has aroused. The NSA also highlighted India’s democratic credentials as India’s strength and the need to preserve it. He was delivering his lecture on “Dream India 2030 — avoiding the pitfalls”. The NSA further elaborated that weakened democracies often make a country, a mere soft power. India will require to take strong decisions to not remain a mere soft power.

The statement was made in the sense that the weak coalition governments are known for softening policies of countries and considerably their potentials as well. India, itself had to pay for political instability during the UPA government, especially in the last few years when there was total policy paralysis.

In order to emphasise his notion, Doval cited the case of Brazil. He stated that Brazil was doing well at the global level but political instability hampered its growth. Doval further stated while speaking at the event that unstable regimes are more vulnerable to fragility, corruption with local political interest taking precedence over the larger interests. He also added that till 2030, India needs a decisive leadership and adherence to the rule of law with religious commitment. There is nothing wrong if certain reasonable apprehensions prevail against the weak coalition governments. Coalition governments have to cater several interests at a given point in time and therefore, such governments find it difficult to take strong decisions on the matters of national interest. In view of these considerations, a stable government becomes a must.

The statements made by the NSA did not appear political. He only highlighted the need of a strong and stable government that can be decisive in the matters of national interest. However, the liberal leftist and elitist sections of the society have started misconstruing his statement. Their understanding of NSA’s statement means that Ajit Doval tries to support and speak in favour of the BJP . However, if Doval’s statement is looked objectively, he only seems elucidating the importance of a stable government for the sake of national interest.

Implying that the support for a stable government amounts to campaigning for the BJP, is suggestive of the fact that even the opponents consider only the BJP to be capable of providing a strong and stable government.

The statement by the NSA has not gone down well with the Lutyens’ brigade. Instead of having a closer look at the context of the statement, they have resorted to the means of slander and accusations. 

It is ironic that on one hand, the Lutyens’ elites constantly refer the incumbent government to be weak but whenever talks about the need of a strong and stable government surfaces, they cry foul about this amounting to be in the support of the BJP government.