Profile

Ajit Kumar Doval, KC is a former Indian intelligence and law enforcement officer, who is the 5^th and current National Security Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister, taking over from Shivshankar Menon in 2014. He had previously served as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau in 2004-05, after spending a decade as the head of its operations wing. He is held in high esteem as one of India’s well-known foremost analysts and commentators on strategic national and international issues and is known for his clear insight and vision for Indian and global security issues. He has spoken extensively nationally and internationally on strengthening Indian security apparatus and closer cooperation among security forces globally.

During the Mizo uprising in 1966 for establishing a separate sovereign state led by the Mizo National Front (MNF) he spent long periods of time incognito with the Mizo National Army (MNA) in the Arakan in Burma and inside Chinese territory and won over 6 of 7 commanders of the MNA, squeezing the life from the insurgency. His next undercover mission was to facilitate the 1975 merger of Sikkim into India. Though it was a highly secret mission and its details were not made available, the merger of Sikkim is credited to his name. Following this he accomplished key missions in Kashmir and Pakistan, in 1999 he was one of the key negotiators after the hijack of Indian Airlines Flight 814 by Islamists.

From 2009-14 he founded and directed the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), described as PM Narendra Modi’s “favourite think tank”. VIF gained prominence in 2011 when it conducted a seminar on black money and corruption. It has emerged as a key entity informing the development of India’s soft power and diplomacy.

Doval, a noted sympathiser with the Tibetan people, has also been close to the case of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje as it relates to India’s key national security concern over the unsettled border with China. Doval had openly expressed his suspicion in 2006 over the Karmapa’s arrival in India after a too-perilous-to-be-plausible escape from China. “On the face of it,” he stated “the whole sequence of his coming to India, establishing himself, developing contacts and linkages, gives an impression that there is more to the whole episode than what meets the eye.” He continued “if he is under the spell of some hostile influences, internal or external, it can be detrimental to India and we need to maintain a high degree of vigil.”

Realising that the years of close monitoring and tight control over his movements by Indian security hadn't weakened China's influence over the Tibetan figurehead, Doval oversaw New Delhi’s efforts to exert its own influence on the Tibetan figurehead. In 2013, he organised for the Ogyen Trinley Dorje to attend VIF in New Delhi for the launch of a book “Tibet, Perspectives and Prospects” written by VIF co-director Prabhat P. Shukla. The move placed Doval in direct contact with Ogyen Trinley Dorje to explore the extent to which he would support the position outlined in the book about Tibet’s historical claims to sovereignty versus China’s. While the Karmapa praised India and its cultural links to Tibet, he made no explicit reference to China, only “Tibet’s neighbours” or criticism of its policies other than “unfortunate events”.

In 2014 Doval was appointed as India’s Special Representative (SR) for negotiations on the Sino-Indian boundary. SR dialogue, besides the boundary question, includes strategic discussions between New Delhi and Beijing. In a speech to the Lalit Doshi Memorial Foundation in Mumbai in August 2015, Doval outlined his thoughts on statecraft and soft power:

The summing up of his speech can be viewed in the following video.