National Security Adviser Ajit Doval today recalled a tense episode from his early intelligence career when a team operating along the Sikkim-China border failed to return as scheduled, leaving him worried about the fate of its members and convinced that his own professional career was over.
Speaking at the convocation of the IIT Roorkee, Doval described himself as a young IPS officer “in his twenties” who was new to intelligence work when he was posted to Sikkim.
His responsibilities included overseeing intelligence operations in the border areas and monitoring the movements and activities of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). “We got no reports of any avalanche or anything. It was a matter of deep worry and concern. They must be coming. They should have come in five or six days, but now it is about ten or eleven days. They were caught by the Chinese and interrogated. Anyway, the Chinese returned them, probably after some talks or negotiations, or a deal must have been struck. So, they returned totally shattered, in shambles. And an inquiry was started,” he added. An inquiry was then initiated into the operation. “I knew that this was the end of my career. I was still in my twenties, and I had to start a new career. “Anyway, the inquiry was over. I wasn’t found at fault. Probably, I had done everything right. The sketches and the maps that were given to us by the headquarters had some defects and mistakes in them. That is how it happened.”
Speaking at the convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Doval described himself as a young Indian Police Service (IPS) officer “in his twenties” who was new to intelligence work when he was posted to Sikkim during the territory’s transition into the Indian Union. But I got a telephone call from the headquarters, and my boss told me, ‘Have you sent some people across? I said, ‘I do not know. He said, ‘They are in Chinese custody now. Doval said that, at the time, he was convinced the incident had brought his career to an end. I saw the incident as something very unprofessional,” he said.
