Ajit Doval

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Ajit Kumar Doval
IPS (Retd.) KC PPM PM
5th National Security Advisor of India
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2014
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byShivshankar Menon
Director of the Intelligence Bureau
In office
31 July 2004 – 31 January 2005
Prime MinisterManmohan Singh
Preceded byK. P. Singh
Succeeded byE. S. L. Narasimhan
Personal details
Born (1945-01-20) 20 January 1945 (age 80)
Ghiri Banelsyun, Pauri Garhwal, United Provinces, British India (now in Uttarakhand, India)
Nationality India
Spouse
Aruni Doval
​
(m. 1972)​
Children2 (including Shaurya Doval)
Residence(s)New Delhi, India
Alma materDr. Bhimrao Ambedkar University (MA)
National Defence College (M.Phil.)
Occupation• National Security Advisors to Prime minister[1]
• Retd. IPS officer
ProfessionBureaucrat,[1] Spymaster
Awards Kirti Chakra
Police Medal
President's Police Medal
NicknameJames Bond of India [2]

Ajit Kumar Doval IPS KC PPM PM (born 20 January 1945) is an Indian bureaucrat, former spymaster and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) of India.[3] Doval is the longest serving NSA, currently serving a third consecutive five-year term since he was first appointed in May 2014 following the election of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India.[4][5] He is a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Kerala cadre.[6][7][8]

Prior to his appointment as the NSA, he served as the Director of the IB in 2004–05, after working for a decade as the head of its operations wing.[9] He worked as an undercover spy of the IB for a year in Pakistan, after which he served for six years as an officer in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.[10] He has spent most of his career as an IB spy.[10]

As a spy and an intelligence officer, Doval was involved in Operation Black Thunder in 1988, the extrication of 46 Indian nationals in Iraq, Operation Hot Pursuit in 2015, the sabotage of the PFI and many other Indian intelligence and military operations.[3][10][11]

He founded the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) in December 2009, a right-of-centre think tank which he directed prior to his appointment as NSA.[12][13]

Early life and education

Doval was born in 1945 in Ghiri Banelsyun village in Pauri Garhwal in the erstwhile United Provinces, now in Uttarakhand.[14] Doval's father, Major G. N. Doval, was an officer in the Indian Army. [6][15]

He received his early education at the Ajmer Military School in Ajmer, Rajasthan.[7] He graduated with a master's degree in economics from the Agra University in 1967.[15]

Police and intelligence career

Doval joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1968 in the Kerala cadre as the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Kottayam district.[16][17][18][19]

Doval worked in Thalassery, Kerala, for a few months in 1972, before joining the central service.[20] He has the experience of being involved in the termination of all 15 hijackings of Indian Airlines aircraft from 1971 to 1999.[21] In the headquarters, he headed IB's operations wing for over a decade and was founder Chairman of the Multi Agency Centre (MAC), as well as of the Joint Task Force on Intelligence (JTFI).[22]

In 1988 during Operation Black Thunder, he infiltrated in Golden temple posing as an ISI agent, did espionage on Khalistani separatists, Doval gathered information about their weapons and made maps of their positions, he became an important member in their group gave wrong advices to them to sabotaged, which helped during Operation Bluestar.[23][24][25]

He played a role in intelligence for Sikkim's merger with India.[26][27] He was trained under M. K. Narayanan, the third National Security Advisor of India for a brief period in counterterrorism operations.[28] He was part of the team which was sent to Kandahar, Afghanistan for negotiations to release passengers of hijacked aeroplane IC-814.[26][29][30]

He was later appointed on the post of director of the Intelligence Bureau.[30]

Post-retirement (2005–2014)

Doval retired in January 2005 as Director, Intelligence Bureau.[31] In December 2009, he became the founding Director of the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), a public policy think tank set up by the Vivekananda Kendra.[32][33] Doval has remained actively involved in the discourse on national security in India.[34][35] Besides writing editorial pieces for several leading newspapers and journals, he has delivered lectures on India's security challenges and foreign policy objectives at several renowned government and non-governmental institutions, security think-tanks in India and abroad.[36][37]

In 2009 and 2012 he co-wrote two reports on "Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens",[38] with others, leading in the field as a part of the task force constituted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[39]

In 2012, IB eyed on him due to then ruling party Congress's suspicions on Doval and his think tank VIF with the doubts that he and VIF were the brains behind Ramdev and Anna Hazare led anti-corruption movement, which generated anger against government.[40]

In recent years, he has delivered guest lectures on strategic issues at IISS, London, Capitol Hill, Washington DC, Australia-India Institute, University of Melbourne, National Defence College, New Delhi and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.[41] Doval has also spoken internationally at global events, citing the ever-increasing need of co-operation between the major established and emerging powers of the world.[42]

National Security Advisor (2014–present)

NSA Doval meets with United States Secretary of state John Kerry in Washington DC.

On 30 May 2014, Doval was appointed as India's fifth National Security Advisor.[43] In June 2014, Doval facilitated the return of 46 Indian nurses who were trapped in a hospital in Tikrit, Iraq, following the capture of Mosul by ISIL. Doval, flew to Iraq on 25 June 2014 to understand the position on the ground and make high-level contacts in the Iraqi government.[44] Although the exact circumstances of their release are unclear, on 5 July 2014, ISIL militants handed the nurses to Kurdish authorities at Erbil city and an Air India plane specially-arranged by the Indian government brought them back home to Kochi.[45]

Along with Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, Doval planned a cross-border military operation against National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) separatists operating out of Myanmar. Indian officials claimed that the mission was a success and 20-38 separatist belonging to Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) were killed in the operation.[46][47][48][49] However, the Myanmar government denied the strikes. According to Myanmar officials, the Indian operation against NSCN-K took place entirely on the Indian side of the border.[50][51]

Indian PM Modi with the NSA Doval, the Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag and the Air Force Chief Arup Raha at Pathankot Airbase.

He is widely credited for the doctrinal shift in Indian national security policy in relation to Pakistan.[52] It was speculated that the September 2016 Indian strikes in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were his brainchild.[53][54][55][56] Doval is widely credited along with then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Keshav Gokhale, for resolving Doklam Standoff through diplomatic channels and negotiations.[57][58][59]

In October 2018, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Strategic Policy Group (SPG), which is the first tier of a three-tier structure at the National Security Council and forms the nucleus of its decision-making apparatus.[60]

After Pakistan based terrorist attacked convoy of CRPF by car bomb in Pulwama which resulted in the deaths of 40 CRPF personnel,the Indian Air Force conducted an airstrike on alleged terrorist bases in Pakistan.[61] Doval was one of the seven persons who knew about India's classified 2019 Balakot airstrike, including Indian Navy, Army, Airforce chiefs and prime minister Narendra Modi. Following the airstrike and retaliatory 2019 Jammu and Kashmir airstrikes and subsequent capture of Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman by Pakistani military, Ajit Doval held talks with US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to secure the release of the Indian pilot.[62]

On 3 June 2019, he was reappointed as NSA for 5 years and granted the personal rank of a Cabinet Minister.[63] Doval is the first NSA to hold such a rank. He is widely considered to be one of Modi's most powerful and trusted advisors, with major influence over India's national security and foreign affairs.[64]

NSA Doval, along with Army, Navy, and Air Force Chief meeting PM Modi
NSA Doval, along with Army, Navy, and Air Force Chief meeting PM Modi

He was also an instrumental figure in revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.[65]

On 26 February 2020, Ajit Doval walked the streets of riot-hit northeast Delhi to assess the situation and reassure the local residents.[66]

On 15 May 2020, the military forces of Myanmar handed over a group of 22 militant leaders, active in Assam and other northeast states, to the Indian government. This was made possible through negotiations headed by Doval.[67][68]

On 15 September 2020, Doval walked out of a virtual SCO meeting after Pakistan projected a fictitious map omitting parts of India.[69]

Awards and recognitions

In media

See also

References

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Further reading

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Government offices
Preceded by National Security Advisor
2014–present 		Incumbent
Police appointments
Preceded by
K. P. Singh
 Director of Intelligence Bureau
2004–2005 		Succeeded by