After National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on Sunday appeared put out a stern warning against anyone who might hold animosity against India, government officials clarified that the NSA was speaking purely in a civilisational and spiritual context and was not referring to any country or specific situation.
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’s Parmarth Niketan ashram on October 24 had addressed the devotees there about the spiritual power of India, where he also mentioned Swami Vivekanand.
While addressing the gathering at the ashram, Doval had said, "India has never attacked anyone. 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."
“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.
NSA Doval had arrived on Saturday in the village of Gheera in the Pauri district of Uttarakhand, where he decided to rebuild his ancestral home. He then attended the Ganga Aarti at the Paramarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra's Vijayadashami.
He also asked all the locals who were present there to spread the message of India's spirituality in the world. This was Doval's third visit to his ancestral village since he assumed the post of NSA.
(With ANI inputs)
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