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Indian NSA Doval comes under attack for Pathankot operation

By Mariana Baabar
January 10, 2016

ISLAMABAD: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot to review the situation after last Saturday’s terrorist attack, knives were out for his National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, where the Indian media has blamed him for “abject failure” for the manner he handled the operation.

In fact Outlook has run a cover story including several articles saying, “The jury is still out on whether Pathankot was an abject failure or fulfilled its target. What is clear is that now Doval is in the line of fire.

The damage to the NSA’s reputation and his flamboyant style of operating, will take some time to repair. Unless he pulls a rabbit out of the hat. Like Dawood.”

Probably for the first time after the attack, the media shy Doval has been compelled to speak to the media to defend himself where he tells the weekly magazine, “My vision for my country is a country which is strong, secure, has good relations with its neighbours, has great international clout, is prosperous and is a country in which every human being is able to get an optimal opportunity for his work.”

But the reports say that “his role has once again come under close scrutiny, with critics blaming him for what they call a “botched-up” operation, thanks to his penchant for a hands-on approach. Some have even labelled him a control freak for taking charge of sensitive counter-terrorists operations. Others point to his lack of experience in and exposure to foreign policy issues — as an IPS officer who got deputed to the Intelligence Bureau fairly early, he spent his entire career in counter-insurgency and intelligence operations — as a reason for India’s recent flip-flops in dealing with Pakistan and its faltering steps in Nepal”.

Doval denied that there was a turf war during the operation to take out the terrorists. “There is absolutely no turf war within the government. People say this because they don’t know the facts. In a team, when 11 people are playing, then there is no turf war between them. There is only one ball and the concerned persons play the ball in the position they are trained for.”

He further explained that intelligence gathering is the job of the Intelligence Bureau.  “The army cannot say we will  gather the intelligence and the intelligence people cannot say we will go for the assault job. So there cannot be turf war.”

He added that what was more important in security matters is how you respond since the terrorist always has the advantage and can in the first initiative cause damage.

“Success of an operation lies in achieving its objectives and denying the adversary his goal. Whether an operation is successful or not is determined by only one factor: whether we have been able to achieve our defined objectives and deny the adversary what they want. India has got the resources, the experience and it has got a highly motivated security apparatus to deal with counter-terrorism,” he said.

But the magazine points out that Doval has become a superspy, lording over foreign policy and security issues, effectively downgrading Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

“His closeness to Modi is unquestioned. The PM is said to be suitably impressed with the work of Doval’s think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation. In the RSS, Doval is supposed to have the strong backing of sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, general secretary Dattatreya Hosbale and ideologue S Gurumurthy. Ministers Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman, Jayant Sinha all have links with the India Foundation, run by Doval’s son, Shaurya. The PM’s key pointsman Ram Madhav too is from there”.

Some of the criticism that the NSA now faces is that he continues to be an operation guy.

“He forgets he is now an NSA, not a spy,” an official tells the weekly. Another former colleague sees the problem in his inability to delegate authority and trust his team. An IPS senior of his, who was in the IB and headed a paramilitary force before he retired, says: “He’s a politician among spies and a spy amongst politicians.”

The reports say that the whole affair is being seen as a botch-up: the security establishment had specific intelligence about an impending attack, but failed to act. It has raised questions about the manner in which the NSA assumed the role of a military commander, ordering troops, deciding how much strength is needed for the operation, and ignoring the army, which has experience in dealing with such situations, not very different from counter-insurgency operations. The overall control of the operation remained with the civilian set-up, and in what is becoming a pattern, the military was reduced to a frustrated bystander, providing peripheral assistance at best.

No NSA, says the magazine, has had Doval’s kind of cult following; he even has a Facebook fan page. Many describe him as ‘Narendra Modi’s 007’.

Doval, another article points out, is responsible for the “vocal presence” of the Balochistan Liberation Organisation which is directly attributed to Doval’s doctrine of making use of faultlines like Azad Kashmir and Balochistan in engagements with Pakistan.

“The irony is not lost on policy wonks. India’s statement on Balochistan at Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009 had critics accusing Manmohan Singh of giving in to Pak pressure. But now, with the NSA’s public stand that Pakistan would have to pay for patronising terror by losing Balochistan, it may have introduced fresh complication in future talks between the two countries,” adds the report.