Will fight even on foreign soil to protect India: Doval

26/10/2020

NEW DELHI, Oct 25: On a day when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat talked about China "encroaching" on Indian soil, a video of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has surfaced in which he can be purportedly seen and heard asserting India's capability to fight on its own soil as well as on foreign soil.
In the video, uploaded on the Facebook page of a Rishikesh-based ashram called 'Parmarth Niketan', Doval can be seen sharing space with the head of the ashram, Chidanand Saraswati. The video is dated October 24 and titled 'Special Ashtami and Navami Navaratri Pujan and Ganga Aarti'.
"You said that we have never attacked," Doval purportedly says to Saraswati. "There are views about it, that if there was danger from somewhere, we should have done it. To save the country is essential. But that we will fight only where you want to fight is not necessary."
In what could be read as a warning to China, the NSA indicated that response from India could be at a place and time of India's choosing. "We never became aggressors to serve our personal interests. We will surely fight, on our soil as well as on foreign soil, but not for our personal interests. But in the interests of Parmarth [spirituality]," Doval said.
The video featuring the NSA talking about taking on China has surfaced the same day when RSS chief Bhagwat talked about China encroaching on Indian soil and being "stunned" by India's response.
“Ours is a civilisation state. It is not based on any religion, language or sect. What cannot be seen, what is the foundation of this nation… is its culture," Doval says, complementing the spiritual leaders for keeping it alive.
Praising "rishis and munis", Doval says they founded the nation of India which was separate from the state of India. "We don't safeguard the nation, we secure the state. State has definite boundaries. The nation is safeguarded by those who found it. It is founded by people like you," Doval can be heard telling Chidanand Saraswati.
"The soul of the Indian nation has been sparked by rishis and munis, and sages like you. If the nation was not there, then there would have been no state. Even if the state is not around, the nation will continue to be," Doval says in the video. He said that India was the only civilisation that continued to remain alive for thousands of years despite coming under attack by "foreign aggressors". Doval said that the Persian civilisation was finished after one attack, as was the Egyptian civilisation.
Addressing the head of ParmarthNiketan, the National Security Advisor said, "The talent and skills [we have] are not difficult to learn. They take time…We can only give our lives. We fight for physical things, with physical things. Only you can fight with spirituality."
The National Security Advisor (NSA) AjitDoval was speaking purely in a civilisational and spiritual context and was not referring to any country or specific situation at the religious function in Rishikesh on Saturday, government officials clarified.
The officials said any attempt to twist the NSA's statement, made in a spiritual context, was uncalled for as he was not speaking about either China or the ongoing conflict in the Eastern Ladakh sector. The clarification came as certain media reports suggested that the NSA was speaking in the context of China and the Ladakh situation. Doval who was in Rishikesh'sParmarthNiketan ashram on October 24 had addressed the devotees there about the spiritual power of India, where he also mentioned Swami Vivekanand.
"You said we have never attacked anyone and there are many views about it. If there is a threat to the country, then we should have attacked as it is important to save the country," the NSA had said.
"We will fight where you want us to fight, that is also not mandatory. We fight where we feel the threat is coming. We have never done it for selfish reasons. We will fight a war on our land and others' land too but not our selfish reasons but for the highest good of others," he had further stated. The NSA suggested that states are bound by physical dimensions but the nation is an emotional bond which is bound by the common thread of spirituality and culture in which there is a collective sense of pride and role of our Gurus and spiritual centres is to guard this larger sense of collective identity.

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