Democracy is India's strength, it needs to be preserved, Doval said while speaking on the topic "Dream India 2030 -- Avoiding the pitfalls"

As political parties across the country ramp-up their efforts to garner support for 2019 general elections, NSA Ajit Doval– PM Modi’s most trusted lieutenant, on Thursday said that India needs a stable government for next 10 years as “weak coalitions will be bad” for the country. The National Security Adviser asserted that weakened democracies tend to make a country softer. He said India cannot afford to be a soft power for the next few years and it will be compelled to take hard decisions.

India needs a strong, stable and decisive government for the next 10 years to achieve its political, economic and strategic objectives, Doval said Thursday while delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture in New Delhi. He claimed that in the past four years, the country’s “national will” has been aroused, PTI reported.

While speaking on the topic “Dream India 2030 — Avoiding the pitfalls”, Doval said democracy is India’s strength, it needs to be preserved. “Weakened democracies can tend to make a 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 National Security Adviser (NSA) was quoted as saying by the news agency. “If it becomes a soft power then you have to make compromises. And when you have to make compromises then your political survival takes precedence over the national interest,” he asserted.

Fragmented polity will make it impossible for India to realise its will because weak governments are unable to take hard decisions, the NSA said. For taking India ahead, it will be necessary to take hard decisions, which are good for the people but are not necessarily populist, Doval said. “India will need a strong, stable and decisive government for the next 10 years, let there be no doubt about it, to achieve our national, political, economic and strategic objectives,” he said, adding that weak coalitions will be bad for the country.

Unstable regimes are more vulnerable to fragility, corruption and local political interest taking precedence over the larger interests, he said at the event organised by All India Radio. In his lecture, Doval cited the example of Brazil that was doing well at the global level but political instability hampered its growth. “India cannot go for unstable coalitions,” he said. Till 2030, India needs a decisive government and decisive leadership, he added.

He also stressed the need for adhering to the rule of law with religious commitment.