New Delhi: Career intelligence officer Ajit Doval has been given a new five-year term as the National Security Adviser (NSA) by the Narendra Modi government with a promotion — from minister of state, his rank has been upgraded to cabinet minister.
Doval, a 1968-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Kerala cadre, has been awarded for his contribution to the national security domain, sources in the Modi government said. According to the sources, the move also shows prime minister’s confidence in Doval.
The first NSA to have a cabinet rank, Doval will continue to help shape the country’s national security structure along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“The rise in status will help remove some of the issues in the first term of the Modi government, when certain Cabinet Committee on Security members and other senior ministers were not comfortable with the PM turning to Doval, overlooking them at times,” a source said.
The source added that the prime minister will now have legitimate grounds to turn to Doval.
A more ‘seamless’ tenure
The elevation in rank will also allow Doval to carry out his task more seamlessly.
For example, the NSA, who deals with international affairs, will now be on a par with Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, who once used to report to Doval.
The rise in rank will enable him to push through some of the work without any bureaucratic red-tapism.
In his second term as NSA, one of his primary focus areas will be the ongoing work to come out with a national security doctrine.
Another focus area would be to set the ball rolling on the Strategic Policy Group (SPG), the advisory body formed to assist the National Security Council (NSC). It was reconstituted late last year with Doval as its chief to strategise on matters dealing with internal and economic security.
In assuming the post, Doval had replaced the cabinet secretary (minister of state rank), who earlier served as chairperson of the SPG, a mechanism first notified in 1999.
The SPG will assist the NSC and undertake, among other tasks, a long-term strategic defence review
It was under Doval’s supervision that India carried out the surgical strike in 2016, the Myanmar operations, and the Balakot air strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camps.
Doval spent virtually his entire career in the Intelligence Bureau, also serving as chief of India’s domestic intelligence agency.
He is a legendary intelligence operative who once infiltrated the insurgent group Mizo National Army and combated terrorists in Punjab and Srinagar. He also spent six years in Pakistan. In 1988, he became the first police officer to receive Kirti Chakra, a military decoration.
Also read: India has not and will not forget sacrifice of CRPF personnel in Pulwama, says Ajit Doval
Does this elevation add anything to the role played by the NSA? Or is it to create a counterweight following the appointment of the new MEA? Only time will allow you to see more clearly. It will have been wiser to wait and see how the current structure of the NSA was positioned against the new balance that will appear following the establishment of the new government!