India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, has said that “poor governance” was the driving factor behind the uprisings that led to changes of government in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka over the past three-and-a-half years, according to multiple Indian media reports.
Speaking at the 6th Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance in New Delhi on Friday, Doval remarked that while democracy has had its successes, it has also created challenges, including partisan politics and societal divisions. “Democracy and non-institutional methods of regime change in countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal have created their own set of problems,” he said, referencing recent political shifts in the region.
Doval specifically referred to Nepal’s government change following the Gen Z uprising in early September. Then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on September 9 after struggling to manage the protests, which began on September 8, and former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed head of the government by President Ramchandra Paudel on September 12.
“The rise and fall of the great empires, monarchies, oligarchies, aristocracies or democracies is actually a history of their governance,” Doval said. He added that the regime changes in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal were “cases of poor governance.” Drawing historical parallels, he noted that mismanagement led to the decline of the Roman Empire, the French Revolution, Tsarist Russia, and the Mughal Empire. According to him, post-war state failures in 28 out of 37 countries were also linked to governance deficits.
Doval pointed to economic hardships, inflation, food and water shortages, oppressive taxation, and social conflict as key factors driving state failures. “Governance creates nations and powerful states, and the role of people is important—they build and sustain institutions,” he said.
He also noted recurring patterns in why some states rise and others fall, citing authoritarianism, institutional decay, internal security collapses, bureaucratic inefficiency, and economic failures. “Institutional decay…internal security collapses or bureaucracies become inept and corrupt. The other factor is economic failures and scarcity of food and water,” he said, emphasizing that the strength of a nation depends on effective governance.
Doval stressed that institutions are central to nation-building. “The government works through institutions, and in the task of nation-building, the most important people are those who build and nurture these institutions,” he said.
He cited examples of recent upheavals in South Asia. In August 2024, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country after weeks of anti-government protests. Similarly, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left office in July 2022 following widespread public uprisings.
Doval’s remarks mark the first time a senior Indian official has publicly commented on the Nepal government change and similar political shifts in the region, framing these events as consequences of governance rather than merely democratic or popular movements.
The title of this piece is one-sided — and so too is its theme.
The unvarnished truth is this:
We are witnessing yet another incursion of the anti-Liberation forces upon the sacred soil of Bangladesh — abetted, as ever, by the sinister machinations of the CIA. It is yet another act of betrayal against the spirit of 1971 and the nation that bled for its freedom.
Uncle Sam wears many despicable masks. One face for America, and quite another for the rest of the world. The same standards it upholds for itself, it shamelessly denies to others — a hypocrisy that has persisted since the end of the Second World War.
If the American establishment were to cease its habitual meddling in the internal affairs of independent and sovereign nations at will, the writer firmly believes that 95 percent of the world’s wars, drone strikes, violent upheavals, and needless bloodshed would vanish overnight. The remaining five percent of global turmoil would wither naturally. Humanity could at last inhabit a peaceful, livable planet — a world where people of all faiths coexist in harmony.
But because of the CIA’s ruthless interference, Bangladesh — after fifty-four years of independence — has once again become a haven for the anti-Liberation elements we once crushed. In 1971, we dealt a decisive and historic defeat to the evil triad of Pakistan, America, and China — with unwavering support from India and the then Soviet Union. Yet, more than half a century later, those same forces have exacted their vengeance upon us.
It has often been said that any crime not committed by the Mafia is done by the CIA — and Bangladesh now stands as a blazing example of this colossal truth. The present so-called Interim Government led by Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus is nothing less than the CIA’s love child — conceived in deception, born in betrayal.
The so-called “anti-quota movement” of July–August 2024 was merely a pretext — a well-orchestrated ploy by the Western superpower and its local cronies from the very outset. In reality, it was a meticulously designed, billion-dollar blueprint of subversion, engineered by Uncle Sam’s notorious spy agency in collusion with their chosen proxies: Professor Yunus — Washington’s favored son; the Jamaat–BNP cabal; Pakistan’s venomous ISI; and a cohort of extremist Islamist outfits such as ISIS, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Ansarullah Bangla Team, Hefazat-e-Islam, and Khelafat-e-Majlish. To this unholy alliance were added the Jamaati-Shibir-infested military leadership and their servile loyalists.
This grand conspiracy culminated in the illegal, unconstitutional, and forcible ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024 — a blatant coup d’état in every sense. She did not resign; she was coerced and exiled to India. Sheikh Hasina remains, by every moral and constitutional measure, the legitimate and rightful Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
The American deep state — embodied in the CIA — had long been determined to unseat her. Nothing, and no one, could dissuade them from committing this ignoble act against Bangladesh and its people.
–Anwar A. Khan,
a direct witness of the brutal birth of Bangladesh from a very close proximity in 1971 and a frontline freedom fighter of the 1971 war field to establish Bangladesh.
(From: Dhaka, Bangladesh)