Two senior most special directors – Rahul Rasgotra and Vivek Srivastava – have been given new assignments outside the Intelligence Bureau, the domestic intel agency of the country. Rasgotra has been made chief of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Srivastava appointed as Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards.
Both belonged to 1989 batch of Indian Police Service (IPS) and were senior most among IB’s five special directors. Three other special directors are of 1990 batch – Rajiv Ranjan Verma, TV Ravichandran and Harinath Mishra. Verma will retire in April and TV Ravichandran is set to retire in August while has tenure till 2025. If current director Tapan Deka is not given an extension in service in June this year, this leaves Ravichandran and Mishra as senior most officers in the agency.
But the key question here is – whether the government of the day will still consider a long tenure in IB and seniority as key criteria for appointment of next IB chief as it seems to have tossed them to dustbin for now.
