Poor governance behind regime changes in India’s neighbourhood: Doval

New Delhi, Nov 1: National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Friday highlighted that good governance is central to both nation-building and national security, warning that poor governance has historically triggered instability and regime changes in several countries in India’s neighbourhood, The Hindu newspaper and ANI news agency reported.

Delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on Governance on the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) in New Delhi, Ajit Doval said that “the rise and fall of great empires, monarchies, oligarchies, aristocracies, or democracies is actually a history of their governance.”

“In the recent cases of regime change through non-constitutional methods in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and others, these were actually cases of poor governance,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.  NSA Doval stressed that governance plays a “seminal role in the nation-building process, as well as in securing a nation and helping it achieve its goals and aspirations.” He said that the quality of governance determines not only economic progress but also internal cohesion and resilience against external threats.

ANI reported that the NSA cited India’s internal security record over the past decade as a reflection of effective governance and coordinated counterterrorism efforts. “I take a capsule of the same last ten years... The facts are facts, and they cannot be disputed. Terrorism in this country has been effectively countered,” he said. “We had a major incident of terrorism on 1st July 2005 and the last one in 2013 in the hinterland. Except for Jammu and Kashmir, which had been a theatre of a proxy war or a covert warfare for Pakistan, which is a different ballgame, the whole country has remained secure from terrorist attacks.”

Ajit Doval credited India’s security agencies for keeping the hinterland largely free from terrorism despite persistent threats. “Efforts were made. People were arrested. Explosives are recovered... Enemies have remained very active, but fortunately, and it’s more of a good fortune in the country that we can say that we have had no terrorist incident in the hinterland,” he said.

He further added that Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), once a major internal security challenge, had been brought under control. “The left-wing extremism has reduced to less than 11% areas than what existed in 2014. Most of the districts which had been declared as left-wing prone have been declared safe,” he said, according to ANI.

Throughout his address, Ajit Doval repeatedly invoked Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s vision of unity and integrity, suggesting that robust and inclusive governance was essential to sustaining India’s national fabric. “The true strength of a nation lies in its ability to govern effectively, ensuring justice, equality, and opportunity for all its citizens,” he observed. The NSA’s remarks highlighted both the successes of India’s internal security apparatus and the vulnerabilities of neighbouring nations, framing governance as the decisive factor between stability and turmoil in the region.