Ajit Doval re-appointed NSA for third consecutive term under PM Modi

The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has re-appointed Ajit Doval as the National Security Advisor(NSA) to the Prime Minister. The former IPS officer Ajit Doval has been re-appointed for his third term.

Narendra Modi was sworn in for the third consecutive time as the prime minister of India on 9 June 2024 after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a majority in the 18th Lok Sabha.

The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet consists of the prime minister and the Home  Minister.

Term and Privileges of NSA Office 

Ajit Doval's appointment comes into effect on 10 June 2024. He will continue in office until the term of the incumbent prime minister or until further order.

The NSA enjoys office at the pleasure of the prime minister, which means that he can be dismissed by the prime minister at any time.

Ajit Doval has been given the rank of cabinet minister in the Modi government. He will have all the privileges of a cabinet minister, but he is not a cabinet minister like Amit Shah..

Ajit Kumar Doval 3rd Term as NSA

Ajit Kumar Doval is a 1968-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Kerala cadre. He was appointed to the Intelligence Bureau in 1972 and retired as its Director in 2005. 

Ajit Doval, in his over 33 years career as an intelligence officer, has worked in Punjab, Kashmir and the Northeast region of the country. 

Doval was the main negotiator of the Indian team that negotiated with the hijackers of Indian Airlines plane IC-814 taken to Kandahar in 1999.

He was appointed India’s fifth National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister on 30 May 2014, after the Narendra Modi government came to power. 

He was re-appointed as the NSA in the 2nd term of the Modi government starting in 2019. 

National Security Advisor In India 

After the testing of nuclear weapons by India in 1998, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government created the post of NSA along with the National Security Council. The first NSA to be appointed in 1998 was Brajesh Mishra.

The NSA's job is to advise the prime minister on issues related to national security, manage India’s nuclear deterrence, collate policy options, and see their implementation. 

So far, there have been five NSAs in India in the following chronology: Brajesh Mishra, J.N. Dixit, Shivshankar Menon, M. K. Narayanan, and Ajit Doval.

List of National Security Advisors and their Tenure 

Following is the list of the persons who have been appointed as the NSA to the prime minister,their tenure and the prime minister under which they worked