Not Rajnath or Jaitley, NSA Ajit Doval is PM Modi's right hand man: Here's why

Five months since the Narendra Modi government took over; one person has emerged as the Prime Minister’s Man Friday. No, it is not Arun Jaitley who was on 26 May bestowed with three important portfolios – finance, defence and corporate affairs, first two being CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) portfolios. Jaitley has of late been bogged down by serious health issues. No, it is not two other CCS ministers either – Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has emerged as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most trusted lieutenant and Man Friday for all seasons and all situations. Consider the following points. [caption id=“attachment_1773739” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajit Doval. YouTube.[/caption] Doval will be visiting West Bengal on Monday, with Intelligence Bureau chief Asif Ibrahim in tow. His main task will be to confabulate with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her top officials over the Burdwan blasts which appear to have serious international ramifications. Normally, such a grave internal security issue where linkages of outfits like al Qaida are being suspected is addressed by the home minister who is the top boss of internal security, terrorism and intelligence issues. But PM Modi has chosen to send Doval, not Rajnath Singh, to West Bengal even though the visit has deep political content too. Banerjee is a firebrand Modi opponent while the BJP’s graph in her state is going up. Arguably, Doval knows intelligence, terrorism and security issues like the back of his palm and is decidedly better qualified to deal with such issues than anybody else in the Modi government. The argument here is limited to the point that Modi seems to be having more faith in Doval rather than Rajnath Singh on these issues. Now consider two more points. Doval has just returned from his maiden visit to Afghanistan after taking over as NSA. But the interesting point is that he did not visit Afghanistan as NSA but virtually as PM Modi’s special envoy. When PM Modi recently spoke over telephone with newly-appointed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah, he told Ghani that he would soon be sending his NSA to Kabul . Doval met the President and the CEO and also held talks with his Afghan counterpart Hanif Atmar. Doval was accompanied by Deputy NSA Arvind Gupta, a senior IFS official who was solidly backed by Doval for the post of deputy NSA. Now the point is that normally it is the External Affairs Minister who is asked to conduct this kind of diplomatic-strategic mission to a key foreign country when a new government is formed there. But Modi did not send Sushma Swaraj on Mission Kabul. In the second week of September, Modi had sent Doval to China , a week ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s maiden trip to India . Doval’s mission in China was to prepare the ground for Xi’s India visit and also met Xi. Again, normally it is the foreign minister, not the NSA, who undertakes such visits to a foreign country before a top leader of that country undertakes a trip to India . In the examples quoted above, both the ministers (Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj) are experienced politicians and administrators with cabinet rank. NSA, on the contrary, holds the rank of minister of state. While Rajnath Singh is an astute politician and a political strategist, Sushma Swaraj is a highly capable hands-on minister in-charge of two key portfolios. In fact, the 62-year-old Swaraj is the most experienced minister in the Modi government, who is senior even to Modi himself. She became Haryana’s youngest cabinet minister at the age of 25. And yet PM Modi has chosen Ajit Doval over Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj for key tasks. He must be having solid reasons for that; and he has. Ever since his Gujarat days Modi has a penchant for trusting officials more rather than politicians and ministers. Modi finds Doval to be a perfect person whom he can trust completely and who can carry out his covert strategic and even political missions perfectly well. Doval’s quiet exploits in Iraq just before the release of Indian nurses from Kerala have raised his utility quotient further in the eyes of the Prime Minister. To use cricket analogy, Doval is to Modi what Ravindra Jadeja is to Indian skipper MS Dhoni. That does not mean that the Virat Kohlis and the Suresh Rainas are inferior in any way. It is just the question of chemistry. And the Modi-Doval chemistry is doing well and seems set for a long haul. So, Doval is in many ways a MoS-ranked NSA who is two half cabinet ministers, to borrow the title of Chetan Bhagat’s latest novel. The writer is FirstPost Consulting Editor and a strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.