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Ajit Doval to continue as National Security Advisor with Cabinet rank in Modi Sarkar 2.0

Ajit Doval, Who Has Often Been Dubbed As India’s 007 James Bond, Likes To Stay Out Of Limelight.

News Nation Bureau | Edited By : Surabhi Pandey | Updated on: 03 Jun 2019, 01:44:42 PM
No government website carries Ajit Doval's profile. (File Photo)

New Delhi:

Ajit Doval will continue as the National Security Advisor in Modi Sarkar 2.0. According to latest media reports, Doval has been given Cabinet rank in the new government. His appointment will be for five years. In 2018, with revival of the Strategic Policy Group, Doval was made the most powerful bureaucrat in the government in over two decades. The group was headed by Doval and the Cabinet Secretary used to report to him.

The other members were Vice Chairman of NITI Ayog, Cabinet Secretary, three services chiefs, RBI Governor, Secretaries of External Affairs, Home, Defence, Finance, Defence Production, Revenue, Atomic Energy, Space and National Security Council Secretariat besides Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, Secretary (R) in Cabinet Secretariat and the Intelligence Bureau chief.

Doval, who has often been dubbed as India’s 007 James Bond, likes to stay out of limelight. In the runup to the Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress had targeted Doval after Pulwama terror attack.  Congress president Rahul Gandhi had shared images of Doval when he went to Kandahar for handing over Masood Azhar in exchange 160 passengers and crew of the IC 814 Indian Airlines Airbus A300. Taking to micro-blogging website Twitter, Rahul wrote: “PM Modi please tell the families of our 40 CRPF Shaheeds, who released their murderer, Masood Azhar? Also tell them that your current NSA was the deal maker, who went to Kandahar to hand the murderer back to Pakistan (sic).” Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar was released by the then BJP government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as part of a deal to free the Kandahar plane hijack hostages in December 1999.

He shot to national fame when he played a crucial part in the 1988 military operation that flushed Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. An Economic Times report says that no government website carries Doval's profile. Whatever is known about Doval is that he was born in 1945 in Garhwal, Uttarakhand, and graduated with a master's degree in economics from the University of Agra in 1967 before joining the police force. Doval, a former intelligence chief, who has served in Pakistan is seen as too hardline.

On May 22, speaking at the annual investiture ceremony of the Border Security Force, Doval stressed on the need to enhance the capabilities and professionalism of security forces. He said that these measures were essential as future challenges in the security and defence domain could be "grave".

Speaking at the annual investiture ceremony of the Border Security Force (BSF), the former chief of the Intelligence Bureau said the agencies working for the country's protection should "reinvent and upgrade" their technology prowess. "You should work to enhance your professionalism, capability and strength as security challenges in the days to come could be more grave," Doval said

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First Published : 03 Jun 2019, 01:44:42 PM

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