A fresh diplomatic row has erupted between New Delhi and Islamabad following a noteworthy address by Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, in which he called on the nation’s youth to “avenge”
a painful history of subjugation. Top Indian government sources described Pakistan’s stinging response as a symptom of “strategic anxiety” rather than genuine diplomacy, asserting that Islamabad’s discomfort stems from India’s uncompromising zero-tolerance approach to cross-border terrorism.
The controversy originated from Doval’s speech on Saturday at the Viksit Bharat Young Leaders Dialogue in New Delhi. Addressing 3,000 young delegates, the 81-year-old NSA invoked the sacrifices of freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose, stating that while “revenge is not a good word”, it can serve as a “huge force” to drive national excellence. He argued that India must strengthen itself economically and socially to ensure it is never again vulnerable to the types of invasions and temple lootings that defined its colonial and pre-colonial past. Doval’s remarks—emphasising that a nation must be strong enough to impose its own terms for security—were framed as a call for self-reliance rather than military aggression.
However, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) issued a scathing rebuttal, with spokesperson Tahir Andrabi labelling the Indian NSA a “camouflaged hate-monger”. Islamabad claimed that India’s leadership is substituting “imagined historical vendettas” for responsible statecraft and warned that such rhetoric endangers regional stability. This response comes at a time of heightened tension, following India’s “Operation Sindoor” in May 2025, which targeted terror infrastructure within Pakistan.
New Delhi has remained unmoved by the criticism. Indian government sources told CNN-News18 that Pakistan’s attempts to take the moral high ground fail when its own security establishment has historically acknowledged using non-state actors as “strategic assets”. They noted that a state where groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are mainstreamed into the electoral process has no standing to question India’s security discourse. “India remains committed to peace,” a senior official noted, “but peace cannot be built on a foundation of denial and duplicity.”
