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Undercover - Ajit Doval in Theory and Practice
Ajit Doval is the most high-profile National Security Advisor in India’s history. His designation grants him sweeping powers over the Indian security and intelligence apparatuses, and a say in foreign relations that he has exercised vigorously, particularly when it comes to the country’s neighbours. His outlook combines strident Hindu nationalism with habits learnt over his decades in the Intelligence Bureau. The results have been far from extraordinary—yet large sections of the media continue to laud him. Doval’s public persona as a super-spy and statesman may be too good to be true.
The Caravan -India's finest magazine of politics, culture and business. Since its relaunch in 2010, The Caravan has earned a reputation as one of South Asia's most sophisticated publications, a showcase of the region's finest writers, with a distinctive blend of masterful reporting, unique criticism and stunning photo essays.
The Caravan -India's finest magazine of politics, culture and business. Since its relaunch in 2010, The Caravan has earned a reputation as one of South Asia's most sophisticated publications, a showcase of the region's finest writers, with a distinctive blend of masterful reporting, unique criticism and stunning photo essays.
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71 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 19, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 10, 2022
This book, its title and cover page are a cheating effort - its only those who may like the subject for some reason who are likely to buy it, and there's nothing in the title or cover to suggest that ot consists of venom vomited onto Doval, onto BJP and RSS by Donthi.
In all honesty the book should be titled "Stone-pelting against Doval, BJP, RSS and so on". As one proceeds with reading it, it becomes clear this exercise is not merely abuse and gossip, with conveniently unnamed sources for negative quotes, but also uses lies of at least the withholding facts variety.
It's puzzling, at the very least. Not because one isn't used to this anti-India, pro-colonial, anti-Hindu venom and abuses from a fraudulent opposition since 2014 in high gear, letting go of every semblance of decency they may have pretended before. But rather because the name of this author was given on Kindle as associated with a work by General Bakshi as an author.
Was that another bit of cheating by opposition? Was that a horrible mix-up by Amazon and Kindle?
Donthi quotes some sources (name withheld, in the kaffee-klatsch style Donthi uses of a kitty circle of society afternoons) on claiming that BJP leaders don't go by consensus, implying that congress and associated parties do so; this is so blatant a lie on both counts, it's astounding why Donthi or whoever inspired him into this stonepelting book expect people to believe it. Do they take India to be stupid?
But perhaps that never was the intention. Perhaps they never expected India to believe them, and it's only meant as a source to be quoted further, ad infinitum.
"A senior journalist covering the prime minister’s office told me, “When Doval is with the PM, nobody can enter. Not even the principal secretary, Nripendra Misra. Not even a call can be transferred.” Media coverage has played up Modi and Doval’s closeness. Five months into the NSA’s tenure, Rajeev Sharma wrote, “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.”"
Anybody who has even remotely known India and her political scene knows this to be blatantly double lie. Whether or not a PM holds meetings about security private, fact is Modi has a cabinet far more obviously competent and quite opposite to some previous ones.
" ... The defence ministry has lacked stable ministerial leadership, with two changes of minister already in Modi’s term. A high-ranking former cabinet bureaucrat told me that although “Sushma Swaraj is a competent person,” as the minister of external affairs she “has been made more or less a cipher.”"
This is non only blatant nonsense, it's a personal attack against someone who deserved more respect in life and after, as does the other cabinet minister referred here.
"“The subversive and violent groups disguise themselves as crusaders of disaffected or alienated sections of the society and indulge in violence and other unlawful activities,” Doval wrote in 2012. “Actions taken by the government to protect law abiding citizens or to enforce rule of law will be portrayed as persecution and oppression further eroding government’s legitimacy.”"
Exactly what opposition and it's violent "protests" including setting fire to vehicles and trains, has been routine since 2014, apart from their support of stone pelters and of slogans about breaking up India, their virulent and disgustabuse of PM and his cabinet, of Hindu Deities and more, while supporting a congress henchman requesting Pakistan on Pakistan television to get rid of PM of India soon after 2014, have all been evidence of.
"Speaking at the national police academy in Hyderabad in 2015, he said, “This war can’t be won by armies. This is the war of policemen. If you win, the country wins.”"
Seeing that it's in form of terrorists posing as internal saboteurs but being either inculcated from abroad or infiltrates pretending to be Indian, that's quite correct.
In fact, that's where Donthi and Co have lost this before their attack against Doval was even conceived.
Dovals popularity isn't based on tales about his exploits as a spy. He was in intelligence and intelligent audiences that like him aren't expecting stories about what India's agents do. It's this speech above and likes thereof, discussing facts instead of hurling usual congress platitudes and lies, that resonate with India, just as the now PM of India has done with people as few, far too few, leaders have for a long time now.
***
"“Comprehensive national security is not just about borders but in its broad terms includes military security; economic security; energy, food and water and health security; and social cohesion and harmony,” the BJP’s election manifesto declared. Yet cow-protection vigilantes have been allowed free rein, and have taken several lives since 2014."
When is congress going to get it into its head that Hindu entity is not that of dumb animals free for slaughter by Abrahamic-II and Abrahamic-III without guilt? That Hindu ancient treasure of thought and knowledge is not to be despised and broken just because Macaulay was on the side behind cannons? If force were the moral victory Islamic laws punishing a female victim of rape for adultery by stone pelting to death would be righteous, but obviously they are not. PM spoke against individual action, but if protection of cows had been instituted by congress instead of the then PM Nehru slapping the monks on hungerstrike, no citizens would need to become vigilante. Besides, it's very comparable with rape, child abduction or murder - if you wait to inform the police, victims are finished.
Cattle theft isn't done by innocent unarmed babies, it's armed butchers who are now getting caught in the process of depriving a poor family of their vital lifeline.
***
Author begins by describing an incident in US, where Doval was quicker than anyone on the spot to retrieve papers that had been scattered on the lawn by a gust of wind, which made him famous via various media.
But to those who value the security and consequent peace of mind of years post 2014, unlike the previous decade when terrorist attacks were as rampant as corruption, Doval needs little introduction.
So, ironically, considering the nature and importance of his work and therefore of the person at the help, one hopes as one reads this that the book does not affect Doval's own security.
***
"Doval’s sphere of influence is enhanced by his links to the VIF, and also to the India Foundation. In 2015, the Economic Times reported that the India Foundation hosts weekly “closed door sessions on high policy issues.” The organisation has arranged gatherings of foreign ambassadors, hosted foreign dignitaries, and helped organise events on Modi’s foreign visits, including his rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014. One bureaucrat I spoke to compared the foundation with the National Advisory Council of the previous government."
Judging from audiences at any public event abroad where Modi speaks to his Non-Resident Indian audiences, it's unlikely there's much truth in the venomous insinuations in that paragraph.
NRI are on the whole those who went abroad on strength of merit, worked hard and have done well; they aren't likely to be the poor villagers congress routinely busses into venues for events, with promises of a free, paid holiday tour including food, who come to supposedly protest an heir to throne being questioned on financial fraud, but when asked by reporters on camera, say candidly they are in town to meet the so-called young leader.
NRI crowds, on the other hand, can't be controlled in diverse countries where they live, and their enthusiasm for this PM is quite genuine.
***
This reminds of the "rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014' coverage by Sardesai where, standing outside and insulting the NRI crowd as a whole and as individuals, he got abusive, got into a physical fight, and was sued by at least one person he'd abused, so he couldn't dare return to US thereafter.
This crowd didn't consist of the Lutyens, Doon School dynasty he was used to abject kowtowing before, but of self respecting capable hardworking middle class achievers who had done everything on their own in a land with no support from society around even in form of ready meals for sons from parents at home, or care in times of sickness.
Sardesai had no clue about their selfhood and being, and thought he could treat them like dirt, as he and his likes are used to back home.
***
"Some argue that Doval’s style is an advantage. Rajeev Sharma wrote in 2014, “while Rajnath Singh is the supreme boss of the IB, Doval continues to have direct and real-time access to IB and its reports. In many ways, Doval is the first NSA who has unbridled access to all dozen-odd Indian intelligence agencies—civil as well as military. He talks to chiefs of IB, RAW and MI”—military intelligence—“ten times a day.”
"“There is much more synergy among various intelligence agencies, defence forces and central armed police forces,” Nitin Gokhale told me. “There is much more coordination at the top. … If you are a critic, you may call it centralisation of power. But the truth is, you have an NSA who has been an operative. He commands more respect from security forces. You can call it fear. But the results are good.”"
There's just one problem there with those paragraphs quoted - thar "Some argue", making it seem that the opposite is true, that Donthi and his backers are inquisitors and such "Some argue" are blasphemous that shall be burnt at stake as soon as people change their verdict.
We the people hope desperately that won't come true. Breathing has been easier, since 2014, after a long time.
"On foreign policy, a defining factor in Doval’s reach has been the equation between him and the foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. As the ambassador to China and then the United States, Jaishankar received Modi on several official trips, including his first visit to the United States as prime minister. Modi removed the incumbent foreign secretary to make room for Jaishankar in January 2015, and granted him a year-long extension on his two-year term early this year. Numerous people familiar with the ministry of external affairs told me that Modi’s great confidence in Jaishankar makes him the most powerful foreign secretary in a long time. Some of Doval’s detractors told me Jaishankar might replace him as the NSA if Modi is re-elected in 2019."
Um, - no?
"Ajit Kumar Doval KC (born 20 January 1945) is a central civil servant of the IPS cadre serving as the fifth and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, with the precedence equivalent to Cabinet Minister.... "
That's currently on Wikipedia.
" ... In government circles, Doval has been nicknamed the daroga, or station-house officer, of South Block—the premises of the ministry of external affairs and the prime minister’s office. Another nickname making the rounds is “National Security Advisor (Pakistan)”—an insinuation that Doval’s understanding of other countries is non-existent."
Really, Donthi? Out and out kitty kaffee-klatsch painted nails out to scratch the missing guest?
***
"The journalist Uday Mahurkar, who is considered close to Modi, pointed to a division of turf between Doval and Jaishankar in a recent book on the prime minister’s administration. “The roadmap for Modi’s global initiatives was prepared by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar,” he wrote, “with the national security focus coming from Ajit Doval in the case of countries in India’s immediate neighbourhood, particularly Pakistan.”
"I approached Doval’s office in the third week of August to ask for an interview. A member of his staff called to say the NSA was very busy and would not be able to speak to me."
One, is that the source of venom, a la Ms Dutt on Modi eight years ago, on camera, comparing him with the previous person in power - "he thinks he doesn't need us", while the audience was to infer that the other, just as unavailable, had somehow intimated otherwise?
And two, are the two paragraphs above even remotely related?
***
"In early 2016, the Modi government faced a major political crisis following the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad. Vemula had been suspended after a complaint from the campus chapter of the RSS’s student wing, which was forwarded to the government by a BJP leader. As accusations of casteism escalated into nationwide protests, the Times of India published a story headlined “Ajit Doval gets report saying Rohith Vemula was not a dalit.” Its author, the journalist Bharti Jain, is best known for covering security. She wrote, “A secret intelligence report has claimed that both the grandmother and mother of Rohith Vemula … have declared the family’s caste as Vaddera, which is a backward caste and not part of the ‘Dalit’ fold.” This controversial claim was used to shield the university’s vice chancellor and senior BJP and government figures from charges under the stringent Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act."
Vadera, or Vadhera, incidentally, is the family name of the so-called Vadra family, latter name anglicized due to an Irish wife, the senior Mrs Vadra.
But more importantly, Vemula was involved in a fight with fisticuffs where he'd put another poor, and dalit, student in hospital. This was the reason for suspension. Affiliations of those who merely suspended a student fir injuring another poor student seriously should be questioned on basis of the assaulted being not in custody of police, not for the mild 'suspension'.
***
" ... There has been much speculation about his role in the allegedly preferential treatment given to officers from his home state: among them the army chief, Bipin Rawat, promoted late last year; the RAW chief, Anil Dhasmana; AK Bhatt, the director general of military operations; and Alok Joshi, the head of the National Technical Research Organisation."
This vitriol against Bipin Rawat should be noted, especially in view of the subsequent "accident" recently.
Wasn't something similar also another disaster during Nehru era?
***
" ... In early 2015, the BJP formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir with the Peoples Democratic Party, which Doval had helped form in the 1990s. The following year, the valley exploded in protest after security forces killed the militant leader Burhan Wani. Police and paramilitary personnel responded with shocking brutality, leaving about a hundred civilians dead and hundreds more blinded by pellet guns. The government imposed a weeks-long curfew and a media blackout. There was virtually no attempt to address the discontent through political means. The deaths of militants since then have been met with massive funeral processions, and reports indicate that a growing number of young Kashmiris are resorting to arms."
This is shameless pro terrorism by Donthi, who isn't going into stone pelting being new terrorist weapon using crowds of younger people, and large stones not exactly lying around on spot but brought in for the purpose.
He's also completely unconcerned about the security forces who weren't allowed to use serious weapons, unlike any other country where handguns (if not machine guns) are routinely used; pakis have used tanks, airplane bombings and much, much worse, and not on protesters much less stone prlters, but merely civilians who aren't exactly blood relatives of the military junta.
***
"Another major militant attack followed in September, and left 18 soldiers dead at an army camp in the town of Uri, in Kashmir. Eleven days after it, the army announced that it had inflicted heavy casualties in “surgical strikes” at several militant bases across the Line of Control. Such raids had occurred before, but had never been publicly flaunted. Now the media hailed Modi for the action. Defence journalists credited Doval with planning it."
Donthi has hereby slotted himself as congress and allied parties mouthpiece. Shame he has none.
"Sober scrutiny came from elsewhere. Some analysts questioned the worth of bringing public one-upmanship into an already difficult conflict. ... "
Donthi quotes someone, presumably of West, mentioning Pakistan as "Such raids were unlikely to make Pakistan “abandon its strategy of supporting some jihadis while fighting others. … Inside the Kashmir valley, India still needed to find the political means of addressing Kashmiri resentment.”"
No, Doval ought to have had Donthi on a very Gandhian fast, at the border and under protection of security forces, until Pakistan converted to Buddhism, or better. What's a better example of peace than Buddha? None, surely?
"“You can’t have a great powerful country which can’t manage its own internal security,” Doval said in 2015 at the police academy. There have been multiple internal security crises on his watch. Just this July, militants killed seven people on the pilgrimage route to the Amarnath Temple in Kashmir. The government faced criticism from across party lines for not acting on prior intelligence about the attack. In August, supporters of the god-man Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, angered by his conviction for rape, rampaged across parts of Haryana, Punjab and the national capital region. More than 30 people were left dead."
Has congress accepted responsibility for 26/11 terrorists attacks, or even for genocide of Sikhs in 1984?
***
"Modi invited the heads of state of all the South Asian countries to his swearing in. They all came, including Nawaz Sharif, then the Pakistani prime minister. The idea was reported to have come from Doval. Modi’s supporters lauded the statesmanlike gesture, and pundits dared hope for better India–Pakistan ties.
"It was in vain. A few instances of cross-border fire served as a reminder of the tense status quo. Pakistan’s high commissioner to India met with leaders of the Hurriyat, a Kashmiri separatist coalition. The Indian government and media berated Pakistan, and India called off bilateral talks scheduled for August.
"Doval was not shy with his opinion of dialogue with Pakistan before he became the NSA. In 2013, he spearheaded a call by a group of former diplomatic, military and intelligence officials for the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to cancel a planned meeting with Sharif at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. Instead, they demanded the creation of measures “that will impose a cost on Pakistan.”
"In December 2015, on the way home ...
In all honesty the book should be titled "Stone-pelting against Doval, BJP, RSS and so on". As one proceeds with reading it, it becomes clear this exercise is not merely abuse and gossip, with conveniently unnamed sources for negative quotes, but also uses lies of at least the withholding facts variety.
It's puzzling, at the very least. Not because one isn't used to this anti-India, pro-colonial, anti-Hindu venom and abuses from a fraudulent opposition since 2014 in high gear, letting go of every semblance of decency they may have pretended before. But rather because the name of this author was given on Kindle as associated with a work by General Bakshi as an author.
Was that another bit of cheating by opposition? Was that a horrible mix-up by Amazon and Kindle?
Donthi quotes some sources (name withheld, in the kaffee-klatsch style Donthi uses of a kitty circle of society afternoons) on claiming that BJP leaders don't go by consensus, implying that congress and associated parties do so; this is so blatant a lie on both counts, it's astounding why Donthi or whoever inspired him into this stonepelting book expect people to believe it. Do they take India to be stupid?
But perhaps that never was the intention. Perhaps they never expected India to believe them, and it's only meant as a source to be quoted further, ad infinitum.
"A senior journalist covering the prime minister’s office told me, “When Doval is with the PM, nobody can enter. Not even the principal secretary, Nripendra Misra. Not even a call can be transferred.” Media coverage has played up Modi and Doval’s closeness. Five months into the NSA’s tenure, Rajeev Sharma wrote, “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.”"
Anybody who has even remotely known India and her political scene knows this to be blatantly double lie. Whether or not a PM holds meetings about security private, fact is Modi has a cabinet far more obviously competent and quite opposite to some previous ones.
" ... The defence ministry has lacked stable ministerial leadership, with two changes of minister already in Modi’s term. A high-ranking former cabinet bureaucrat told me that although “Sushma Swaraj is a competent person,” as the minister of external affairs she “has been made more or less a cipher.”"
This is non only blatant nonsense, it's a personal attack against someone who deserved more respect in life and after, as does the other cabinet minister referred here.
"“The subversive and violent groups disguise themselves as crusaders of disaffected or alienated sections of the society and indulge in violence and other unlawful activities,” Doval wrote in 2012. “Actions taken by the government to protect law abiding citizens or to enforce rule of law will be portrayed as persecution and oppression further eroding government’s legitimacy.”"
Exactly what opposition and it's violent "protests" including setting fire to vehicles and trains, has been routine since 2014, apart from their support of stone pelters and of slogans about breaking up India, their virulent and disgustabuse of PM and his cabinet, of Hindu Deities and more, while supporting a congress henchman requesting Pakistan on Pakistan television to get rid of PM of India soon after 2014, have all been evidence of.
"Speaking at the national police academy in Hyderabad in 2015, he said, “This war can’t be won by armies. This is the war of policemen. If you win, the country wins.”"
Seeing that it's in form of terrorists posing as internal saboteurs but being either inculcated from abroad or infiltrates pretending to be Indian, that's quite correct.
In fact, that's where Donthi and Co have lost this before their attack against Doval was even conceived.
Dovals popularity isn't based on tales about his exploits as a spy. He was in intelligence and intelligent audiences that like him aren't expecting stories about what India's agents do. It's this speech above and likes thereof, discussing facts instead of hurling usual congress platitudes and lies, that resonate with India, just as the now PM of India has done with people as few, far too few, leaders have for a long time now.
***
"“Comprehensive national security is not just about borders but in its broad terms includes military security; economic security; energy, food and water and health security; and social cohesion and harmony,” the BJP’s election manifesto declared. Yet cow-protection vigilantes have been allowed free rein, and have taken several lives since 2014."
When is congress going to get it into its head that Hindu entity is not that of dumb animals free for slaughter by Abrahamic-II and Abrahamic-III without guilt? That Hindu ancient treasure of thought and knowledge is not to be despised and broken just because Macaulay was on the side behind cannons? If force were the moral victory Islamic laws punishing a female victim of rape for adultery by stone pelting to death would be righteous, but obviously they are not. PM spoke against individual action, but if protection of cows had been instituted by congress instead of the then PM Nehru slapping the monks on hungerstrike, no citizens would need to become vigilante. Besides, it's very comparable with rape, child abduction or murder - if you wait to inform the police, victims are finished.
Cattle theft isn't done by innocent unarmed babies, it's armed butchers who are now getting caught in the process of depriving a poor family of their vital lifeline.
***
Author begins by describing an incident in US, where Doval was quicker than anyone on the spot to retrieve papers that had been scattered on the lawn by a gust of wind, which made him famous via various media.
But to those who value the security and consequent peace of mind of years post 2014, unlike the previous decade when terrorist attacks were as rampant as corruption, Doval needs little introduction.
So, ironically, considering the nature and importance of his work and therefore of the person at the help, one hopes as one reads this that the book does not affect Doval's own security.
***
"Doval’s sphere of influence is enhanced by his links to the VIF, and also to the India Foundation. In 2015, the Economic Times reported that the India Foundation hosts weekly “closed door sessions on high policy issues.” The organisation has arranged gatherings of foreign ambassadors, hosted foreign dignitaries, and helped organise events on Modi’s foreign visits, including his rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014. One bureaucrat I spoke to compared the foundation with the National Advisory Council of the previous government."
Judging from audiences at any public event abroad where Modi speaks to his Non-Resident Indian audiences, it's unlikely there's much truth in the venomous insinuations in that paragraph.
NRI are on the whole those who went abroad on strength of merit, worked hard and have done well; they aren't likely to be the poor villagers congress routinely busses into venues for events, with promises of a free, paid holiday tour including food, who come to supposedly protest an heir to throne being questioned on financial fraud, but when asked by reporters on camera, say candidly they are in town to meet the so-called young leader.
NRI crowds, on the other hand, can't be controlled in diverse countries where they live, and their enthusiasm for this PM is quite genuine.
***
This reminds of the "rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014' coverage by Sardesai where, standing outside and insulting the NRI crowd as a whole and as individuals, he got abusive, got into a physical fight, and was sued by at least one person he'd abused, so he couldn't dare return to US thereafter.
This crowd didn't consist of the Lutyens, Doon School dynasty he was used to abject kowtowing before, but of self respecting capable hardworking middle class achievers who had done everything on their own in a land with no support from society around even in form of ready meals for sons from parents at home, or care in times of sickness.
Sardesai had no clue about their selfhood and being, and thought he could treat them like dirt, as he and his likes are used to back home.
***
"Some argue that Doval’s style is an advantage. Rajeev Sharma wrote in 2014, “while Rajnath Singh is the supreme boss of the IB, Doval continues to have direct and real-time access to IB and its reports. In many ways, Doval is the first NSA who has unbridled access to all dozen-odd Indian intelligence agencies—civil as well as military. He talks to chiefs of IB, RAW and MI”—military intelligence—“ten times a day.”
"“There is much more synergy among various intelligence agencies, defence forces and central armed police forces,” Nitin Gokhale told me. “There is much more coordination at the top. … If you are a critic, you may call it centralisation of power. But the truth is, you have an NSA who has been an operative. He commands more respect from security forces. You can call it fear. But the results are good.”"
There's just one problem there with those paragraphs quoted - thar "Some argue", making it seem that the opposite is true, that Donthi and his backers are inquisitors and such "Some argue" are blasphemous that shall be burnt at stake as soon as people change their verdict.
We the people hope desperately that won't come true. Breathing has been easier, since 2014, after a long time.
"On foreign policy, a defining factor in Doval’s reach has been the equation between him and the foreign secretary, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. As the ambassador to China and then the United States, Jaishankar received Modi on several official trips, including his first visit to the United States as prime minister. Modi removed the incumbent foreign secretary to make room for Jaishankar in January 2015, and granted him a year-long extension on his two-year term early this year. Numerous people familiar with the ministry of external affairs told me that Modi’s great confidence in Jaishankar makes him the most powerful foreign secretary in a long time. Some of Doval’s detractors told me Jaishankar might replace him as the NSA if Modi is re-elected in 2019."
Um, - no?
"Ajit Kumar Doval KC (born 20 January 1945) is a central civil servant of the IPS cadre serving as the fifth and the current National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, with the precedence equivalent to Cabinet Minister.... "
That's currently on Wikipedia.
" ... In government circles, Doval has been nicknamed the daroga, or station-house officer, of South Block—the premises of the ministry of external affairs and the prime minister’s office. Another nickname making the rounds is “National Security Advisor (Pakistan)”—an insinuation that Doval’s understanding of other countries is non-existent."
Really, Donthi? Out and out kitty kaffee-klatsch painted nails out to scratch the missing guest?
***
"The journalist Uday Mahurkar, who is considered close to Modi, pointed to a division of turf between Doval and Jaishankar in a recent book on the prime minister’s administration. “The roadmap for Modi’s global initiatives was prepared by Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar,” he wrote, “with the national security focus coming from Ajit Doval in the case of countries in India’s immediate neighbourhood, particularly Pakistan.”
"I approached Doval’s office in the third week of August to ask for an interview. A member of his staff called to say the NSA was very busy and would not be able to speak to me."
One, is that the source of venom, a la Ms Dutt on Modi eight years ago, on camera, comparing him with the previous person in power - "he thinks he doesn't need us", while the audience was to infer that the other, just as unavailable, had somehow intimated otherwise?
And two, are the two paragraphs above even remotely related?
***
"In early 2016, the Modi government faced a major political crisis following the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad. Vemula had been suspended after a complaint from the campus chapter of the RSS’s student wing, which was forwarded to the government by a BJP leader. As accusations of casteism escalated into nationwide protests, the Times of India published a story headlined “Ajit Doval gets report saying Rohith Vemula was not a dalit.” Its author, the journalist Bharti Jain, is best known for covering security. She wrote, “A secret intelligence report has claimed that both the grandmother and mother of Rohith Vemula … have declared the family’s caste as Vaddera, which is a backward caste and not part of the ‘Dalit’ fold.” This controversial claim was used to shield the university’s vice chancellor and senior BJP and government figures from charges under the stringent Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act."
Vadera, or Vadhera, incidentally, is the family name of the so-called Vadra family, latter name anglicized due to an Irish wife, the senior Mrs Vadra.
But more importantly, Vemula was involved in a fight with fisticuffs where he'd put another poor, and dalit, student in hospital. This was the reason for suspension. Affiliations of those who merely suspended a student fir injuring another poor student seriously should be questioned on basis of the assaulted being not in custody of police, not for the mild 'suspension'.
***
" ... There has been much speculation about his role in the allegedly preferential treatment given to officers from his home state: among them the army chief, Bipin Rawat, promoted late last year; the RAW chief, Anil Dhasmana; AK Bhatt, the director general of military operations; and Alok Joshi, the head of the National Technical Research Organisation."
This vitriol against Bipin Rawat should be noted, especially in view of the subsequent "accident" recently.
Wasn't something similar also another disaster during Nehru era?
***
" ... In early 2015, the BJP formed a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir with the Peoples Democratic Party, which Doval had helped form in the 1990s. The following year, the valley exploded in protest after security forces killed the militant leader Burhan Wani. Police and paramilitary personnel responded with shocking brutality, leaving about a hundred civilians dead and hundreds more blinded by pellet guns. The government imposed a weeks-long curfew and a media blackout. There was virtually no attempt to address the discontent through political means. The deaths of militants since then have been met with massive funeral processions, and reports indicate that a growing number of young Kashmiris are resorting to arms."
This is shameless pro terrorism by Donthi, who isn't going into stone pelting being new terrorist weapon using crowds of younger people, and large stones not exactly lying around on spot but brought in for the purpose.
He's also completely unconcerned about the security forces who weren't allowed to use serious weapons, unlike any other country where handguns (if not machine guns) are routinely used; pakis have used tanks, airplane bombings and much, much worse, and not on protesters much less stone prlters, but merely civilians who aren't exactly blood relatives of the military junta.
***
"Another major militant attack followed in September, and left 18 soldiers dead at an army camp in the town of Uri, in Kashmir. Eleven days after it, the army announced that it had inflicted heavy casualties in “surgical strikes” at several militant bases across the Line of Control. Such raids had occurred before, but had never been publicly flaunted. Now the media hailed Modi for the action. Defence journalists credited Doval with planning it."
Donthi has hereby slotted himself as congress and allied parties mouthpiece. Shame he has none.
"Sober scrutiny came from elsewhere. Some analysts questioned the worth of bringing public one-upmanship into an already difficult conflict. ... "
Donthi quotes someone, presumably of West, mentioning Pakistan as "Such raids were unlikely to make Pakistan “abandon its strategy of supporting some jihadis while fighting others. … Inside the Kashmir valley, India still needed to find the political means of addressing Kashmiri resentment.”"
No, Doval ought to have had Donthi on a very Gandhian fast, at the border and under protection of security forces, until Pakistan converted to Buddhism, or better. What's a better example of peace than Buddha? None, surely?
"“You can’t have a great powerful country which can’t manage its own internal security,” Doval said in 2015 at the police academy. There have been multiple internal security crises on his watch. Just this July, militants killed seven people on the pilgrimage route to the Amarnath Temple in Kashmir. The government faced criticism from across party lines for not acting on prior intelligence about the attack. In August, supporters of the god-man Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, angered by his conviction for rape, rampaged across parts of Haryana, Punjab and the national capital region. More than 30 people were left dead."
Has congress accepted responsibility for 26/11 terrorists attacks, or even for genocide of Sikhs in 1984?
***
"Modi invited the heads of state of all the South Asian countries to his swearing in. They all came, including Nawaz Sharif, then the Pakistani prime minister. The idea was reported to have come from Doval. Modi’s supporters lauded the statesmanlike gesture, and pundits dared hope for better India–Pakistan ties.
"It was in vain. A few instances of cross-border fire served as a reminder of the tense status quo. Pakistan’s high commissioner to India met with leaders of the Hurriyat, a Kashmiri separatist coalition. The Indian government and media berated Pakistan, and India called off bilateral talks scheduled for August.
"Doval was not shy with his opinion of dialogue with Pakistan before he became the NSA. In 2013, he spearheaded a call by a group of former diplomatic, military and intelligence officials for the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to cancel a planned meeting with Sharif at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. Instead, they demanded the creation of measures “that will impose a cost on Pakistan.”
"In December 2015, on the way home ...
April 29, 2019
The author sounds very biased and has a very negative approach towards NSA. Won't recommend wasting time and money on this book.
The author sounds very biased and has a very negative approach towards NSA. Won't recommend wasting time and money on this book.
The author sounds very biased and has a very negative approach towards NSA. Won't recommend wasting time and money on this book.
Read
October 28, 2020Quite a detailed biography of our NSA. It paints a picture of a man who is ill-suited to be anything other than a mafia enforcer. He's disastrous for our country, but right for the times.
I really admire Praveen Donthi's writing. He writes with clarity on Indian foreign policy and security machinery, and his Caravan longform articles are a pleasure to read.
I really admire Praveen Donthi's writing. He writes with clarity on Indian foreign policy and security machinery, and his Caravan longform articles are a pleasure to read.
July 7, 2022
3.5 stars maybe :)
June 28, 2022
Biased
Everytime the narrator wants to pitch something that he believes (I think) there comes an anonymous IB official. He himself doesn't believe what other officials than his anonymous one said and sometimes proved but wants readers to believe what he is saying on the basis of the statements of his anonymous one. He never gave proofs but statements by his anonymous one.
Everytime the narrator wants to pitch something that he believes (I think) there comes an anonymous IB official. He himself doesn't believe what other officials than his anonymous one said and sometimes proved but wants readers to believe what he is saying on the basis of the statements of his anonymous one. He never gave proofs but statements by his anonymous one.
March 12, 2019
A interesting read
Well first I felt it is kind of biased overview of Mr Ajit Doval. Second is the obsession of the author with the right wing and approach which I believe he doesn't like.
What I think still it is a interesting read as it gives more insights on the work and background of Mr Doval.
Well first I felt it is kind of biased overview of Mr Ajit Doval. Second is the obsession of the author with the right wing and approach which I believe he doesn't like.
What I think still it is a interesting read as it gives more insights on the work and background of Mr Doval.
January 16, 2021
This a good book it portrays Doval from a neutral stance and it talks about the he best about Doval. During his stint as IB chief and overall as an intelligence officer he has been exceptional but as NSA he has not been that great as compared to his predecessors mainly due to Pathankot air base strike rise in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and strained relationship with neighbours.
May 30, 2018
Ajit Doval is a great guy but the book looks like collection and commentary of news articles
March 9, 2023
Nothing but just negative propaganda. That's what the Caravan is famous for. The book is full of quotes from unnamed sources which doesn't seem to be untrue.
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