New Delhi: Retired IPS officer Ajit Lal, a 1974-batch Himachal Pradesh cadre officer, will take over as the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Northeast adviser, replacing A.K. Mishra whose term ended last week, two senior government officials told ThePrint.
Mishra, a 1987-batch Rajasthan IPS cadre officer, was involved in tripartite talks with Kuki-Zo insurgent groups that had signed the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre–as well as the Naga peace talks. Lal will now assume these responsibilities.
The appointment comes at a crucial juncture as the Centre is engaged in a political dialogue with SoO groups to address their demands for a Union Territory with a separate legislature. The SoO pact was extended last September for a period of five years.
Manipur has been reeling under the impact of the 2023 ethnic conflict between the non-tribal Meiteis and tribal Kuki-Zo communities. Last week, the Centre installed a popular government in the state, with a Meitei chief minister, and Kuki and Naga deputy chief ministers to end a year of political vacuum.
Though the Centre is yet to make an official announcement on the appointment, one of the officials said Tuesday that Mishra informed participants at a 4 February meeting in Delhi — which included Kuki-Zo groups and senior Manipur government officials — that his term had ended and Lal would replace him.
Lal is no stranger to the Northeast. He was briefly involved in the Naga peace talks for five months in 2014, after the then interlocutor R.S. Pandey resigned to join the BJP and contest the Lok Sabha election from Bihar.
But, shortly after the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government came to power, the Home Ministry replaced him and appointed current Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi as the new interlocutor.
An experienced security hand, Lal retired as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the National Security Council Secretariat on 31 July 2014. Before that, he served as special director in the Intelligence Bureau, handling some of the major insurgency-affected regions.
A graduate of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College, Lal also served as counsellor at the Indian embassy in Washington DC, where he handled security of the embassy and its personnel.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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