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| - Fact Check: Ajit Doval's 8-year-old comment on Taliban being shared out of context and as recent
Part of a speech by Ajit Doval on Afghanistan is going viral on social media with the claim that the National Security Advisor said that Afghan forces will beat back the Taliban. The claim, however, was deemed misleading by India Today AFWA.
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India Today Fact Check
The video is eight years old when Doval was not the NSA. In 2013, while delivering a speech on Afghanistan, Doval had said assumptions regarding the country might not come true as several factors were involved in building a democratic Afghanistan with a powerful military.
Part of a speech by Ajit Doval on Afghanistan is going viral on social media with the claim that the National Security Adviser completely misread the situation. In the video, Doval is heard saying Afghan forces will beat back the Taliban, and Pakistan believed exactly the opposite.
Taking a dig at Doval, netizens claim the NSA made the speech a few days before Taliban took over Afghanistan. “That’s Ajit Doval. Rated by Modi Government as an ace spymaster. Listen to his analysis of Afghanistan... Just a few days before what happened there,” reads the caption.
Retired Lt Gen HS Panag also shared the clip, and sarcastically remarked, “The great spymaster!”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral clipping has been taken out of context from a longer speech Doval delivered in 2013 when he was not the NSA. Doval was analysing the different likely scenarios for Afghanistan, and in fact, was sceptic about the Afghan forces.
Some social media users had replied to Panag’s tweet saying the speech was delivered by Doval in 2013 and is not a recent one. Doval assumed the post of NSA in May 2014.
We found that on July 23, 2013, Doval as former Intelligence Bureau chief was invited to speak at a conference on Afghanistan, organised by the United States India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) at Capitol Hill, Washington DC.
USINPAC had uploaded Doval’s entire speech on their YouTube channel on August 26, 2013. The viral clip has been forked out from the 22-minute-long speech.
Doval’s assumptions
At 6 minutes into the speech, Doval is heard talking about the preparedness of the Afghan forces and Pakistan military officials’ scepticism about their capabilities. He was analysing assumptions and likely scenarios surrounding Afghanistan coming up as a democratic country with an independent military.
Doval was optimistic and had clearly mentioned that it was his assumption that Afghanistan might be able to build a well-trained and well-equipped army to defend its democracy and Constitution. But at the same time, he’d cautioned that even a more powerful army under former President Mohammad Najibullah had earlier crumbled against the Taliban.
In his 2013 speech, Doval had repeatedly mentioned that a genuine intention from Pakistan is more than required to build a successful and democratic Afghanistan, which he found missing.
It is, therefore, clear that part of an eight-year-old speech by Doval on Afghanistan is being circulated in the wrong context.
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