'National interest prevails over individual rights'

When an individual's rights come into conflict with national interest, it is "inevitable" that the country's welfare prevails, a top official of a think tank said here today.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave here, Shaurya Doval, executive director of India Foundation and son of NSA Ajit Doval, said one can be labelled as a "nationalist" or "anti-nationalist" depending upon whether their actions "strengthen or weaken" India.
"I think when it comes to an individual's rights and obligations in conflict with larger interest of the nation, it is inevitable that the interest and welfare of the nation must prevail over the individual interest," Shourya, who heads the think tank jointly with BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, said.

Referring to a terror strike in France, Shourya said the government there "changed 90 laws overnight, put behind individual liberty when it came in conflict with national interest and did whatever they needed to do."
He maintained that slogans like 'Afzal hum sharminda hai, tere katil zinda hai' and 'tum kitne Afzal maroge, har ghar se Afzal niklega' allegedly raised at the February 9 event at JNU, and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's assertion that he "will not say Bharat Mata ki jai even if someone puts knife to my throat" can be labelled as "anti-national".
To the sloganeering of 'hume kya chahe azadi, Sanghvad se azadi, manuvad se azadi, samantvad se azadi', he said, "This, I won't call anti-national, but if someone says hume kya chahiye azadi, I have a problem."

During the event, he also questioned "award wapsi" episode launched by artists and writers post the Dadri lynching incident, saying those who gave back honours should ask themselves if they were returning the awards to India "which had given them the award".
"If India gave them the award, is it that India that they have lost their faith in that they are returning their awards to? And, in doing so, the question they must ask are they strengthening India, whatever may be their conception of India or are they weakening India?" he said when asked if those who returned awards were "anti-nationals".

He also said the common people of the country are not "foolish" and cannot be "fooled" by use of sophisticated arguments.