Former Intelligence Bureau Chief Ajit Doval appointed National Security Advisor

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday issued a formal order to appoint Ajit Kumar Doval as the national security adviser ( NSA) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The notification has ended the suspense over his appointment amid speculation that the government was toying with the idea of designating a foreign affairs expert as Doval’s deputy.

The government has not appointed a deputy NSA. Doval, a 1968-batch Kerala-cadre IPS officer, headed the Intelligence Bureau during 2004-05, and is considered among the best in the field of internal security and operations.

He was the first police officer to receive a Kirti Chakra, usually reserved for Army personnel. ET was the first to report that Modi had cleared Doval’s name for national security adviser. After that of Modi’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra, the national security adviser appointment is the next major appointment in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Both Misra and Doval had started assisting Modi even before their official appointment, and prepared the points for the Prime Minister’s talks with Saarc leaders soon after he took oath. Doval will bring with him his vast expertise on anti-terror and anti-Maoist operations and give a concrete shape to India’s security structure. People familiar with the matter said Modi’s expectations from Doval were to give India a robust and deterrent security and intelligence structure that would prevent terrorist attacks on the nation.

During the one year that Doval was the IB chief, India did not suffer any terror attacks. Internal security and strategy expert Ajai Sahni said he did not want to comment on Doval as an individual but said that the BJP government had definitely defined its security policy in greater detail compared with the previous UPA government.

“The BJP manifesto talks in detail about the internal security requirements. It focuses on capacity building rather than flashy ideas. If it can deliver on those, it will be a tremendous improvement,” Sahni said. According to him, it was widely believed that Doval was involved in giving inputs on internal security for the BJP manifesto.