On Christmas Day in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had an unscheduled diversion to Lahore to attend his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s wedding, had unmistaken stamp of Ajit Doval’s handiwork. Soon after, Doval was seen commanding NSG troops during an attack on army installations in Pathankot. Couple of years later, he was attributed with swift flushing out militants in a cross-border strike in Myanmar. Another cross-border strike in Balakot following militant attack in Kashmir’s Uri, is said to be masterminded by Doval. He has been involved in negotiations in all 15 hijacking of aircrafts in India during past three decades including infamous IC-814 to Kandahar. Even abrogation of Article 370 taking away special status from Kashmir was helmed by the 1967-batch IPS officer of Kerala cadre, euphemistically titled James Bond of India.
He was seen monitoring peace process on the ground in Kashmir after curfew was partially lifted in 2019. He is said to be behind India’s response to China’s border indiscretions and military and diplomatic skirmishes with Pakistan during past 10 years. He is the one who guided India’s ‘muscular diplomacy’ with neighbours like Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
He might be most powerful police officer in India but he is also one of the most low-profile bureaucrats, giving rare public appearances and fewer speeches. He enjoys Prime Minister’s complete trust. As National Security Advisor, his job is to formulate military and diplomatic strategies, but his actions during past 11 years suggest you can take the uniform from a police officer, but you can’t keep him away from the action in the field.
Before he retired as Director of Intelligence Bureau in January 2005, he was part of all the high-profile operations both inside the border and across it. He is said to have spent seven years in Pakistan under disguise. He was also seen in disguise of a rickshaw puller inside Golden Temple Amritsar, during Operation Black Thunder launched in 1986 to flush out armed militants hiding there. He got rid of militancy in Mizoram by breaking MNF chief Laldenga’s hedgemony. 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.
India’s fifth and current NSA (National Security Advisor) to the Prime Minister of India, Ajit Doval was born in the year 1945 in Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. Often called the “James Bond of India”, the patriot has spent 40 years of his life in oblivion for the sake of the country’s defence. Doval is 1968-batch Indian Police Service (IPS- retired) officer. He joined the service in the Kerala cadre as the Kottayam ASP. He had an impressive career in the Intelligence Bureau, where he served as the director of the IB from 2004-05.
LALDENGA’S SURRENDER IN MIZORAM
Mizo National Front (MNF) was notorious for spreading insurgency in Mizoram in 1980. Doval went to meet MNF chief Laldenga. When he left for Delhi, six out of seven commanders of the MNF boarded his aircraft. This move broke Laldenga’s back who later admitted that he was left with no choice but to surrender. Peace was thus established in Mizoram.
KUKA PARRAY’S SURRENDER IN KASHMIR
In 1990, Ajit Doval went to Kashmir and managed to persuade infamous militant Mohammad Yusuf Parray, better known as Kuka Parray, and his troops to become counter-insurgents. The Pakistan-trained Parray and his jawans waged a pitched battle with oter Pak-trained insurgents, turning a new leaf in Kashmir insurgency. This was instrumental in clearing the way for Jammu and Kashmir elections in 1996 in which Mr Farooq Abdullah registered a thumping victory and became state’s Chief Minister.
UNDERCOVER IN PAKISTAN
Ajit Doval took his career as a field officer seriously and went to great lengths to do whatever it took to undertake his task. Doval is said to have spent 7 years in Pakistan while working for the Indian government. He mastered Urdu and is an expert on Pakistani history, culture and politics. This helped him remain undercover in Pakistan, undertaking various tasks at considerable risk to his life. He was also posted in Indian Embassy in Pakistan as Commerce Secretary. What business he transacted there is no brainer.
RESCUE OF NURSES FROM IRAQ
Doval also played a key role in the release of 46 Indian nurses who were trapped in Tikrit hospital, Iraq. On June 25, Doval flew to Iraq as a part of a top-secret mission, made contacts with high-level people and bureaucrats in the Iraqi government and convinced the ISIS militants to handover the nurses safely to the authorities at Erbil City. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan essayed Doval’s role in second edition of his ‘Tiger’ spy universe – Tiger Zinda Hai.
OPERATION BLACK THUNDER – II
The 80s saw the Khalistan militancy peak in Punjab, and Ajit Doval was an active field agent working to infiltrate militant groups operating there. In the run-up to Operation Black Thunder-II in 1988, Doval worked as a rickshaw puller in the Golden Temple area and subsequently made contact with the militants holed up inside the Golden Temple, posing as a Pakistani ISI agent, who was stationed there to support them. His invaluable intelligence given to the NSG facilitated a successful strike against the militants with minimum casualties to life and property in the temple complex. He was given the Kirti Chakra for his services, a first by any Indian police officer.
IC 814 HIJACKING IN KANDAHAR
In 1999, Indian Airlines IC 814 from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked to Kandahar by some Pakistan-backed terrorists. Although India’s capitulation to the hijacker’s demands was a political decision, it was Ajit Doval’s deft handling of the situation and negotiation with the hijackers that prevented further loss of life and damage to the aircraft. He straightaway refused their demand for release of 36 terrorists to secure freedom of hijacked passengers. In face of Doval’s hard bargaining skills, they narrowed down their demand to three and abandoned the demand for a ransom of $ 200 million and body of HuM founder Sajjad Afghani.
PERSONAL LIFE
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 Kumaun University. In November 2018, he received an honorary doctorate in Philosophy from Amity University.
GETTING INTO IPS
In 1968, Ajit Doval joined the Indian Police Service and was actively involved in the anti-insurgency operations in Punjab and Mizoram. He was titled the ‘Indian James Bond’.
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. On December 28, 1971, a riot broke out in Thalassery where the RSS was accused of targeting Muslims and the mosques.
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).
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 wrote two reports on ‘Indian Black Money Abroad In Secret Banks and Tax Havens’. He was inducted as NSA in May 2014 and is still working on the same post.
