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Ajit Doval:- NSA, INDIA

JAMES BOND IN REAL LIFE

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

Ajit Doval is the 5th and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He is fondly known as 'The James Bond of India' and has previously served as the Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 2004 to 2005. He is a retired officer of the IPS cadre. A Multi-Lingual with robust strength in an ordinary physical feature, and sharp intellect, with eyes for  details—these helped him to achieve all his goals in profession of  espionage.

 

 

Birth, Early Life and Education

Ajit Kumar Doval was born on January 20, 1945, in Ghiri Banelsyun village in Pauri Garhwal in a Garhwali family. His father, Major G. N. Doval, was an officer in the Indian Army. 

Ajit Doval did his schooling at King George's Royal Indian Military School (now as Ajmer Military School), in Ajmer, Rajasthan. In 1967, from Agra University, he graduated with a Master's degree in Economics. In December 2017, Doval was awarded an honorary doctorate in science from Agra University. In May 2018, he received an honorary doctorate in Literature from Kumaon University. In November 2018, he received an honorary doctorate in Philosophy from Amity University. 

IPS CAREER

• In 1968, Ajit Doval joined the Indian Police Service and was actively involved in the anti-insurgency operations in Punjab and Mizoram. Mizoram National Front was breaking India’s back with insurgency. Doval have infiltrated the underground Mizo National Front, weaned away half a dozen of its top commanders and all but broke the back of the MNF.
•  He was titled the 'Indian James Bond'. He has also supervised anti Naxal security operations.
•  On December 28, 1971, a riot broke out in Thalassery where the RSS was accused of targeting Muslims and the mosques. From Jan 2 to Jan 9 in 1972, Doval worked in Thalassery and was appointed by the then Home Minister K Karunakaran to restore law and order in the area.
• In 1999, Ajit Doval was amongst the three negotiators who negotiated the release of passengers from IC-814 in Kandahar. From 1971 to 1993, India's sole domestic airline  was hijacked 16 times,  and  from 1971 to 1999. he was involved in the termination of 15 hijackings of the Indian Airlines aircraft.  
• REF: BOOK “IA's Terror Trail—Anil Sharma”

Ajit Doval headed Intelligence Bureau's (IB) operations wing for more than a decade. He was also the founding Chairman of the MAC (Multi-Agency Circle) and JTFI (Joint Task Force on Intelligence). 

INTELLIGENCE CAREER

Ajit Doval won over six of  Lal denga’s seven commanders during the Mizo National Front insurgency. Doval was underground for several years in the Arakan in Burma and inside Chinese territory. From there he went to Sikkim and played an important role during the merger of the state with India. That part I will cover some other time. He also rescued Romanian diplomat Liviu Radu. In 1988, Doval was inside the Golden Temple, Amritsar to collect critical information before Operation Black Thunder. 

Post Retirement

In January 2005, Ajit Doval retired as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB). In December 2009, he became the founding Director of Vivekananda International Foundation. Doval has actively written editorial pieces for leading newspapers and journals, has delivered lectures at government and non-government institutions, think tanks, etc. in India and abroad over national security in India, its challenges and foreign policies. 

In 2009 and 2011, Ajit Doval has co-written two reports over 'Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens'. 

NSA CAREER

After his retirement, Doval was appointed as India's fifth National Security Advisor on May 30, 2014.

On June 25, 2014, Ajit Doval flew to Iraq on a top-secret mission and made high-level meetings with the Government of Iraq. On July 5, after Doval's meeting, ISIL militants handed all the 46 Indian nurses, trapped in a hospital in Tikrit, Iraq, to Kurdish authorities at Erbil city. A specially arranged Air India aircraft brought the nurses back to Kochi, India. 

As per Indian officials, Ajit Doval planned a cross border military operation with Army Chief Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag against the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) operating out of Myanmar. Indian side claims that the operation was successful and 20-38 separatists were killed in the operation carried out by India. However, the Government of Myanmar denied such claims and stated that the Indian operation against NSCN-K took place entirely on the Indian side of the border. In addition to this, NSCN-K also denied India's claim. 

He is popular for the doctrinal shift in Indian national security policy in relation to Pakistan. The Indian National Security policy changed from purely Defensive to Defensive Offensive to Double Squeeze Strategy. As per reports, the 2016 Indian Strikes in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were his brainchild.

He has also resolved Doklam Standoff through his diplomatic relations along with the then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Keshav Gokhale. 

In October 2018, Ajit Doval was appointed as the Chairman of the SPG (Strategic Policy Group). 

On February 27, 2019, tension rose between India and Pakistan after the IAF airstrike in Pakistan and later PDF retaliatory airstrike in India and capture of Indian pilot Abi Nandan Vardaman by the military of Pakistan. The Pilot was released by the Pakistani Military as a gesture of peace and to de-escalate the tensions between the two countries. As per Indian officials, when the Indian pilot was in the custody of Pakistan, Ajit Doval held talks with the US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to secure the release of the Indian pilot. 

On June 3, 2019, Ajit Doval was reappointed as NSA for the next 5 years. On May 15, 2020, the Myanmar military handed a group of 22 insurgents who were active in Northeast states of India to the Government of India in a special plane. 

Ajit Doval is also known to have a hand in Sri Lanka’s last Presidential election, as well as, in the just concluded Bangladesh election.

TWO EYES

Nationalist: He has been strict with anti-national elements of all hues -major economic offenders, terror networks; fundamentalists and so on. No wonder, Union government has initiated a big drive against anti nationals of all hues . In short, nation comes first for him.

India Centric in international matters: He believes that in order to survive; India must take care of its own strategic needs (economic and security); and thus, there are no enemies and foes for it. In short, India centric doctrine must be accepted and applied.

 AWARDS 

1- Ajit Doval was the youngest police officer to receive a Police Medal for his meritorious service. He received an award after completing 6 years of his service in the police. 

2- Ajit Doval was awarded the President's, Police Medal. 

3- In 1998, he was conferred with the highest gallantry award-- Kirti Chakra. He was the first police officer to receive this award, which was earlier given as a military honour. 

He must be having many more unknown exploits, which we will know once he writes a memoir after full retirement.  He has shown West it's place in the world. His famous statement:-" IF THEY DO ANOTHER MUMBAI, THEY LOOSE BALOCHISTAN."

JAI SHREE RAM.

REFERENCES:- LINKS BELOW.

[1] Who is Ajit Doval, NSA Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval

[2] NSA Ajit Doval approves 600 phones for troops in Kashmir to connect with family 

[3] Pakistan under biggest pressure from anti-terror watchdog FATF, says Ajit Doval at NIA meet

[4] NSA Ajit Doval in U.S.; to meet Secretary of State and other top officials

[5] http://m.economictimes.com/news/defence/know-about-indias-real-life-james-bond-who-stared-china-down-at-doklam/amp_articleshow/60290358.cms