National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been reappointed to the post, now with a Cabinet rank. Doval will serve at the post for five more years. In the previous tenure, he was placed in the Minister of State rank.
Doval becomes the first NSA to get Cabinet status.
Ajit Doval Reappointed
Doval is the first executive appointment in the government. National security played a major role in BJP’s election campaign, which was evoked on multiple occasions during the course of election season. Reports suggest that in the second consecutive term of Modi government, national security would remain an area of focus.
The Department of Personnel and Training said that Doval has been reappointed as NSA by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet. The order also said that his tenure would be ‘co-terminus with that of PM or until further orders.
A governmental official told The Hindu, that this decision was taken to ‘facilitate his interactions with most senior officials’ of other countries. “A case in point is China, where there has been a mismatch between him and the Special Representative for boundary talks, who is normally a State councillor of Cabinet rank. China had raised discomfort about the mismatch,” the official said.
Bestowing Cabinet rank on Doval comes in the wake of former foreign secretary S Jaishankar given the post of External Affairs Minister. In the present Cabinet, civil servants like Hardeep Puri, Arjun Ram Meghwal and RK Singh have Minister of State (MoS) rank.
Head of Intelligence Bureau To NSA
The former Indian intelligence and law enforcement officer Mr.Ajit Doval (popularly known as “The Spy Master”) is the current National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since 30 May 2014. He had previously served as the Director of India’s prestigious Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 2004-05, after spending a decade as the head of its operations wing. The NSA’s post was created during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as the PM in 1998.
He has been credited with initiating NSA-level talks with both Pakistan and China.
