Ajit Doval back as National Security Adviser\, gets Cabinet rank



Ajit Doval back as National Security Adviser, gets Cabinet rank

Sources says the Prime Minister's decision to elevate Doval to the rank of Cabinet Minister was to maintain equilibrium in the functioning of his government


Ajit Doval

Ajit Doval

Retired IPS officer Ajit Doval was on Monday reappointed as the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, but this time with an elevation to the rank of Cabinet Minister. He will now be senior to the Cabinet Secretary, the highest post in Indian bureaucracy, and can issues orders directly to him.

With the elevation to the Cabinet minister-rank, he will also avail all the powers and protocols of a Cabinet Minister. Sources said the Prime Minister's decision to elevate Doval to the rank of Cabinet Minister was to maintain equilibrium in the functioning of his government. "It was a strategic decision," said a retired bureaucrat.

When PM Modi appointed retired 1977-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Subrahmanyam Jaishankar as Minister of External Affairs (MEA), it was compulsion upon him to elevate Doval as well since he is a 1968-batch IPS officer.

ELEVATED FOR SMOOTH FUNCTIONING
  • S Jaishankar has replaced Sushma Swaraj as MEA. Sources said Doval did not have adequate expertise in Indian diplomacy   
  • So Modi decided to appoint Jaishankar as Minister of External Affairs and elevate Doval to the rank of Cabinet Minister to ensure smooth functioning of govt

"Jaishankar was made to report to Doval in previous governments and it would have been embarrassing for Doval to report to Jaishankar (nine years his junior) from his previous dispensation," said a source in the PMO.

Sources said that as Doval did not have adequate expertise in diplomacy, PM appointed Jaishankar — instrumental in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with the US — as Swaraj's replacement.