Must guard against attempts to undermine institutions: Doval

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday warned against attempts to undermine institutions and called for improvement of the government’s capacity to manage global perceptions about India’s image.

He said the national will was affected when the country’s image was sullied, and everything possible must be done to ensure the credibility of Indian institutions in the public eye was not eroded by disinformation and vested political interests.

Delivering the Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance at the India International Centre here, Doval took a veiled dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying some people ran down their own country by speaking what they know was untrue.

He urged the government to guard against attempts to undermine the credibility of Indian institutions including electoral systems. “The government capacity for perception management and creating awareness about national achievements among people must improve. It is important because the national will is affected when the country's image gets sullied, when people feel our institutions are not independent. We must also ensure the credibility of institutions in the public eye is not eroded by disinformation, hostile propaganda and vested political interests,” said Doval, adding that people losing faith in the institutions — defence, security, judiciary and electoral system — would be “very disastrous”.

The reference was to the Opposition campaign against Election Commission in respect of electoral rolls revision with the NSA also lamenting “casual remarks of some (read opposition leaders) about how many aircraft were downed”.

“This is very unfortunate,” he said, urging awareness among people about national achievements.

He further said the only thing that would make irresponsible individuals in society and politics accountable was when people stopped taking such things kindly.

“People have to become sensitive to such things, like when somebody goes outside and says things about the country, which are not true...you are not having a fair game of politics with your adversaries. You are running down the country…It is not a crisis of knowledge, it is a crisis of intention,” Doval said, responding to queries after the lecture that was presided over by Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh. Also present during the lecture was former Jharkhand governor Prabhat Kumar, who heads the IIC Governance Centre.

Alluding to the Congress-led Opposition's campaign against the Election Commission, Doval said people raising doubts about the credibility of Indian electoral system was “very unfortunate”.

“That is the basis of our democracy. We pride ourselves as the world's largest democracy. We have had constitutional democracy started from day one and there has been no change of government except through the ballot box. It is no mean achievement. I hope greater public awareness on these issues will make people feel more responsible,” the NSA said.

Listing India's achievements on the fronts of economy, anti-corruption and ease of living over the past 11 years, Doval said while governance had been pro-people, global perception about India was not the same. He cited the global rankings that continued to rank India unfavourable. and said, “The world does not necessarily perceive us as an egalitarian, inclusive democracy… It is true that the methodology adopted is not fair but there is also a need for introspection to identify the shortcomings and what needs to be done…There is a need for improvement in government capacity to manage global perceptions.”