Indian James Bond Ajit Kumar Doval KC is the fifth and current National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, with the precedence of a Cabinet Minister. Born in the Ghiri Banelsyun village in Uttarakhand in 1945, his father was a retired army officer.
He joined the Indian Police Service in 1968 as the ASP of Kottayam district in Kerala Cadre. He was part of the anti-surgency operations in Mizoram and Punjab and also one of the three negotiators in the passengers release from hijacked IC-814 in Kandahar 1999. He has spent about 7 years of his life as an undercover operator in Pakistan to gather information on active militant groups. Moreover, he also played a key role on gathering intelligence in ‘Operation Blue star’ in 1984.
He was appointed the director of Intelligence Bureau because of his great achievements and spent a good part of his career there. Doval is known for his efforts against terrorism. Then later in 2005, he got retired and became the founder director of Vivekananda International Foundation.
Then in 2014, he was appointed as the India’s fifth National Security Advisor (NSA) which was a big achievement of his career and he has made contributions for the success of various top level missions for India.
- Return of 46 Indian Nurses
46 Indian nurses were held hostages in a Tikrit Hospital in Iraq after ISIL captured Mosul in June 2014. Doval then flew to Iraq on 25 June 2014 to judge the position on the ground and make high-level contacts in the Iraqi government. The exact circumstances and incidents are not known but ISIL militants handed over the nurses to the Kurdish authorities at Erbil city on 5th July 2014 and an especially arranged Air India plane brought the nurses back to Kochi.
- Cross border Miltant Operation
National Socialist Council of Nagaland is a nationalist separationist group operating in North east states especially Nagaland. India conducted a cross border militant operation against insurgents in NSCN-K operating out of Myanmar on 9th June 2015. The big mission was planned by Ajit Doval and was started in response to ambush of Indian Army convoy of 6 Dogra Regiment in Chandel district of Manipur. Indian officials claimed that they crossed the border and around 38 insurgents of NSCN-K were killed in the 40 minute mission.
- Indian Surgical Strike 2016
He is credited with the change in Indian national security policy against Pakistan. Indian Surgical Strike in 2016 across the LOC in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir is said to be his brain idea. Innfiltrators crossed the Pakistan border and attacked on Indian Army camp killing 19 soldiers. In response to it India did Surgical Strike killing several casualties.
- Doklam Stand-off 2017
China-India border stand-off was a military border standoff between the Indian Armed Forces and the People’s Liberation Army of China over Chinese construction of a road in Doklam near a trijunction border area, known as Donglang. The territory was claimed by both China and Indian ally Bhutan, so India declared Operation Juniper and sent troops to stop the Chinese from constructing the road. Doval, along with then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Indian Ambassador to China Vijay Keshav Gokhale are credited for their contributions in resolving the issue and not the war happen.
- 2019 Balakot Air Strike
On the day of 14 February 2019, a vehicle full of Indian Soldiers was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir which led to the death of 46 Central Reserve Police Force personnel of India. In response to this, Indian Warplanes on 26th February crossed the de facto border in the controversial region of Kashmir and dropped bombs in the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan killing several casualties.
In retaliation to this, the Pakistan Air Force launched Operation Swift Retort on 27th February and conducted six airstrikes at multiple locations in India owned Jammu and Kashmir and then captured Indian Pilot Abhinandan Varthaman. Then, Ajit Doval was the one who held talks with US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to make sure of the release of the Pilot safely.
- Removal of Special status of Kashmir
The Parliament of India on 5th August passed a resolution to end the temporary special status or autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir state granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. It was a great decision and achievement for whole of India as the region was disputed since independence. It was done greatly by the efforts of Doval and is credited for the same.
- Myanmar handed over 22 militants
The negotiations with the neighboring countries are handled by Doval. Because of him the military forces of Myanmar gave us a group of 22 militant leaders, active in Assam and other northeast states to the Indian government to maintain security.
Being the NSA, he was also appointed as the Chairman of the Strategic Policy Group (SPG) in October 2018. The group is the first tier of a three tier structure at the National Security Council and forms the nucleus of its decision-making apparatus. He was reappointed as NSA on 3 June 2019 following the end of his tenure and was also given the rank of a Cabinet Minister. He is the First NSA to hold the rank.
Talking about the award he received, he was the youngest police officer to receive the Police Medal for meritorious service and was later awarded with the President’s Police Medal. He was also honoured with Kirti Chakra, one of the highest gallantry Awards in India in 1988.
