Ajit Doval has been appointed as the National Security Adviser (NSA) for a second consecutive term and elevated to the rank of Union Cabinet Minister, according to a Personnel Ministry order. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment for a five-year period with effect from May 31, 2019 and it will be co-terminus with the term of the prime minister, it said.
“During the term of his office, he will be assigned the rank of Cabinet Minister,” the order said. Doval was in May 2014 appointed as the fifth NSA in the rank of Minister of State.
He is the first National Security Adviser to get a second term.
Doval has been widely hailed for his contribution in the national security domain during his last five-year tenure. He had played a key role during the Balakot air strike after the Pulwama terror attack and the cross-border surgical strike, officials said.
Doval retired in January 2005 as the chief of Intelligence
Bureau. He also drew praise for his role during
the 73-day stand-off between India. After a few years in uniform, he had
worked as an intelligence officer for over 33 years during which he had served
in the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. Doval, a 1968-batch IPS (retired)
officer, known as one of the best operational brains within intelligence
circles, was India’s main negotiator with the hijackers of Indian Airlines
plane IC-814 taken to Kandahar in 1999.
