“The question is not of ‘right’ and ‘left’; the issue really is Democracy versus Totalitarianism. The choice is not between ‘progressivism’ and ‘reaction’; the people have to choose between forces uncompromisingly pledged in their loyalty to the nation with extra-territorial loyalties. Differences are bound to remain in the country, but the Indian nation cannot afford to be divided in its basic commitment to Nationalism and Democracy.”
16th All India Session- Chanakya Nagar, Patna – 28-30 December - 1969
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee 30
10th Prime Minister of India 1924–2018Related quotes

Voicing opposition to the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950
Context: The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a national characteristic of the police state, not of democracy. The history of Soviet Russia is a modern example of this ancient practice. I must, in good conscience, protest against any unnecessary suppression of our rights as free men. We must not burn down the house to kill the rats.

1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)

“Most people, at a crisis, feel more loyalty to their nation than to their class.”
Source: 1930s, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 8: Economic Power

Remarks at Human Rights Day event http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/121086a.htm (10 December 1986)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989 (1994) p. 92

The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), Part I: England Your England
"The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941)
Context: One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. In certain circumstances it can break down, at certain levels of civilization it does not exist, but as a positive force there is nothing to set beside it. Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not.

The 125th Anniversary Jubilee Lecture, St. Stephen's College, Delhi, November 12 2005, "India: from Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond" Available Online http://www.shashitharoor.com/books/midnight/lecture.html
2000s