Will Ajit Doval Get A Third Term As National Security Advisor?

Former National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval term ended on June 5, a day after results of 2024 General Elections were announced.

He is India's longest-serving NSA, with a term of 10 years.

A 1968-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Kerala cadre, he is said to be a very active intelligence officer. He is the first police officer to be awarded the Kirti Chakra, India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award.

He has held several high-stakes appointments, including a six-year term in the Indian High Commission in Pakistan. He also negotiated the release of passengers of Air India flight IC-814, which was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists in 1999.

He retired as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) director in 2005.

It is reported that Doval took part in Operation Black Thunder in 1988 to flush Khalistani terrorists out of the Golden Temple.

The 79-year-old Doval's tenure has seen India shifting its security stance to offensive defense, where you pre-emptively take the fight to the enemy's territory instead of fighting on your own.

Under this new strategy, India retaliated against the Uri terror attack by conducting surgical strikes inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) opposite the Line of Control (LoC). Doval also helmed the Balakot air strikes — India's response to the terror bombing in Pulwama.

Killings of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Khalistani terrorists by unknown gunmen in Pakistan and other nations are also sometimes linked to Doval.

His term also saw India putting down insurgencies in the northeast and the containment of Naxalism.

For example, just in 2024, more than 100 Naxals have been killed by the security forces in the forests of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

NSA Doval is also the point man in the discussion between India and China, after Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) and Indian Army soldiers clashed in Galwan Valley in June 2020 and the subsequent four-year-long standoff.

Now that the new portfolios are being announced in the new term of PM, it is highly likely he will get a third term since PM Modi has chosen continuity, with the entire Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) remaining the same as in Modi's earlier term.