New Delhi: With its focus on continuity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his third term, has retained his core team in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Two of Modi’s most trusted lieutenants — 75-year-old P.K. Mishra and 79-year-old Ajit Doval — will continue as principal secretary to the PM for a second term and National Security Adviser for a third term respectively. So will the two advisers to the PM — Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor (both 63 years of age).
The appointments committee of the cabinet approved Mishra and Doval’s appointments with effect from Thursday and said their tenures would be coterminous with the prime minister’s term or until further orders – whichever was earlier.
In the case of Khare and Kapoor, the committee approved their appointments for a period of two years starting 10 June.
Mishra, a 1972-batch retired Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, and Doval, a 1968-batch retired IPS officer, will have cabinet rank in the table of precedence in the PMO.
After it came to power for a second time in 2019, the Modi government gave cabinet rank to three senior civil servants — Doval, the then principal secretary in the PMO Nripendra Misra and then additional principal secretary P.K. Mishra. Before that, their positions were equivalent to a minister of state.
The two advisors — Khare, a 1985 batch retired Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer and Kapoor, a 1987 batch Himachal Pradesh-cadre IAS officer — have been reappointed in the rank of secretary to the Government of India.
Each of the top four lend their expertise in key governance areas.
The soft-spoken Mishra has been heading the PMO since 2019 and oversees all important policy issues, the agenda of cabinet meetings, all appointments and issues related to the ministries of law and justice and personnel. Mishra, one of Modi’s most trusted and closest aides, came to the PMO from Gujarat in 2014 as additional principal secretary to the PM. He has worked closely with Modi since the time the latter was Gujarat chief minister as his principal secretary.
A former director of the Intelligence Bureau, Doval, who was appointed in 2014 during Modi’s first term, handles everything related to national security – be it external affairs, defence or external intelligence agency RAW, among others.
Khare, who was reappointed as Information & Broadcasting secretary for a second time after retirement, moved to the PMO in October 2021. He handles the rural and agriculture verticals. In the late 1990s, Khare had famously exposed the fodder scam in Bihar that had led to then CM Lalu Prasad Yadav’s conviction in the case.
Kapoor, the second advisor in the PMO, was appointed in May 2022. The former petroleum secretary looks after the infrastructure and resources vertical in the PMO.
While there will be continuity in the top two posts, all eyes are now on appointments to the over half a dozen top positions in the government that will fall vacant in the next two to four months.
These include the three top posts in the government — cabinet secretary, home secretary and foreign secretary — that are due to become vacant between August and October.
The extended tenure of Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, the country’s highest-ranking civil servant, will end on 30 August. A 1982-batch Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer, Gauba was appointed in 2019 for a period of two years. He has been given three extensions.
The term of Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, who is also on extension, is due to end on 22 August. The tenure of the 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer, who was appointed in August 2019, has been extended four times since November 2020, when he retired.
Another top official whose extension is ending in October 2024 is Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. The Modi government had appointed Kwatra, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, foreign secretary in April 2022. His term was first extended till 30 April, 2024, and then further extended till the end of October.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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