India needs strong, decisive govt for next ten years: NSA

NEW DELHI: National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Thursday said India needs a “strong, stable and decisive” government for the next 10 years to achieve its political, economic and strategic objectives.

Delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on “Dream India 2030 -- Avoiding the pitfalls”, he said the country’s “national will” has been aroused in the last four years and asserted that “weak coalitions will be bad for the country”.

He said democracy is India’s strength and it needs to be preserved. “Weakened democracy can tend to make the country a soft power. India cannot afford to be a soft power for the next few years. It will be compelled to take hard decisions,” the NSA said.

“If it becomes a soft power then you have to make compromises. And when you have to make compromises, your political survival takes precedence over national interest,” he said.

Fragmented polity will make it impossible for India to realise its will because weak governments are unable to take hard decisions, he said, adding “For taking India ahead, it will be necessary to take hard decisions, which are good for the people but are not necessarily populist.”

He said unstable regimes are more vulnerable to fragility and corruption with local political interests taking precedence over larger national interests.

Doval cited the case of Brazil which is doing well at the global level but political instability hampered its growth. “India cannot go for unstable coalitions,” he said.