Why Ajit Doval as NSA, PK Mishra as PS again

Three days after several ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet were given their old portfolios, two key officials in their respective old positions were repeated as well. Ajit Doval was re-appointed as the National Security Advisor and Pramod Kumar Mishra has been repeated as the principal secretary to the prime minister.

Credentials of Doval, Mishra

Doval

• fought militancy in Punjab as an Intelligence Bureau spy in the 1980s
• directed India’s response to Chinese aggression in Doklam in 2017 and East Ladakh in 2020
• is known for diplomacy with the five most powerful countries in the world, the P5
• handles RAW
• is a spymaster with experience in Pakistan and Afghanistan
• has close links with Gulf countries

Mishra

• is a retired 1972 batch IAS officer
• retired as secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture
• has been with PM Modi for the whole of the past decade
• is said to be the most powerful ‘babu' in the entire union ministerial bureaucracy

Watch the video above to understand what the credentials above mean for India's domestic politics and administration and foreign countries.