A man in the position of Ajit Doval, the fifth National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister, should be feared. If Indian diplomacy was Marvel’s Avengers, Ajit Doval would be the Hulk and Nick Fury packed into one. (For reference, Nick Fury is the spymaster in Marvel’s Avengers.)
His predecessor, the first person to officially hold the NSA’s office – Brajesh Mishra – was known for the incident famously referred to as “Mao’s Smile”, the rumoured smile of Chinese leader Mao Dzedong, when he met Mishra.
The recently-announced surgical strikes would have served as Doval’s “Mao’s Smile”. However, Doval’s hat is already home to various mysterious feathers.
Spied on Pakistan for Seven Years
A firm believer of Hinduism, Doval lived in Karachi for seven years. While there are no chronicles of his time in Pakistan, one incident which led to his plastic surgery had made to media reports.
While living a Muslim man’s life, an old man had once recognised Doval to be from the Hindu community and had taken him to a closed room.
The old man with white long beard called his bluff and asked him to get the holes in his ear-lobes removed through plastic surgery and that is exactly what he did.
Operation Black Thunder, 1988
When the The Golden Temple in Amritsar was under siege with violent pro-Khalistan Sikhs, the government was still licking its wounds from the 1984 Operation Blue Star.
Doval infiltrated the temple area – dressed as a rickshaw puller – and led the insurgents, convincing them that he was an agent from Pakistan who was trying to help them.
The intel provided by him helped the government flush out the people holed inside.
Mizoram Accord
Two years before Operation Black Thunder, the Mizoram Peace Accord brought independent statehood to Mizoram and put an end to its 20-year-long struggle.
Laldenga, the leader of underground Mizo National Front (MNF), was waging a war with the state of India in 1986. During one of the heated negotiations, Doval swept into Laldenga’s camp and convinced over half-a-dozen militants to turn into counter-infiltrators.
In later years, Laldenga agreed that it was Doval who had single-handedly weakened him.
Kandahar Hijack, 1999
Air India flight IC-814 was hijacked by Taliban-supported terrorists with 176 passengers and 15 crew members on board.
Serving as the Intelligence Bureau Special Director at the time, Doval was a part of the team led by External Affairs Joint Secretary Vivek Katju, with two RAW officers CD Sahay and Anand Arni.
Fluent in Urdu, Doval was the key negotiator for the government, which had to let go of five captured terrorists, including now Jaish-e-Mohammad commander Masood Azhar.
Background
Born on 20 January 1945 in Uttarakhand, Doval completed his Master’s in Economics from the University of Agra in 1967.
He joined the police force and then moved to the Intelligence Bureau and eventually became its head.
He has a son named Shaurya Doval, who is also gaining substantial influence on Modi’s foreign policy. A graduate of London School of Business, Doval junior works with the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) think tank – India Foundation.
Known to be a heavy-smoker, NSA Doval introduced and officiated the 'two-bullets-in-response-to-one’ idea along the Line of Control.
Although, there is no love lost between Doval and Pakistan, he speaks the nation’s language, Urdu, fluently. In fact, he has never shied away from public admission of his displeasure towards Pakistan.
Although Doval’s short frame may not exude anything spy-like, curiously enough, the details of his seven years in Pakistan still evade public knowledge.
Watch Doval claim that Pakistan was a product of Aligarh Muslim University which was, he claims, set up by the British to counter the Banaras Hindu University.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)