NSA Ajit Doval says India has seen no major terror attack outside J&K since 2013, credits strong deterrence

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval asserted that India has been able to effectively counter terrorism, claiming that the last major incident happened in 2013. With Jammu and Kashmir as an exception, Doval said the entire country has remained secure from terrorist attacks.

“The facts are facts, and they cannot be disputed. Terrorism in this country has been effectively countered. We had a major incident of terrorism on July 1, 2005, and the last one in 2013 in the hinterland. Except for Jammu and Kashmir, which had been a theatre of a proxy war or a covert warfare for Pakistan, which is a different ballgame, the whole country has remained secure from terrorist attacks. Efforts were made. People were arrested. Explosives are recovered,” ANI news agency quoted Doval as saying in his Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture on Governance.

He said that terrorist incidents have occurred in the hinterland despite enemies being active, adding that the “left-wing extremism” has reduced to less than 11 per cent of areas as compared to its scale in 2014.

“Enemies have remained very active, but fortunately, and it’s more of a good fortune in the country that we can say that we have had no terrorist incident in the hinterland. The left-wing extremism has reduced to less than 11 per cent areas than what existed in 2014. Most of the districts which had been declared as left-wing prone have been declared safe,” Doval said.

He added that India has been able to establish deterrence, meaning the country can respond to any threat to its national security.

“It is not sufficient to say that we have taken sufficient security measures. What is equally important is that we are able to make every Indian feel secure, both from internal and external forces. While we can deal with them effectively in accordance with government laws and policies, we can create deterrence that credibly convinces them we have the will and the strength to respond to any threat in a manner best for our national security,” the NSA said.

Referring to the recent instability within India’s neighbouring countries in the recent past, Doval termed them as cases of “poor governance”. “The rise and fall of the great empires, monarchies, oligarchies, aristocracies or democracies is actually a history of their governance. In the recent cases of regime change through non-constitutional methods in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and others, these were actually cases of poor governance. And that is how the governance matters,” he said.