Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spymasters who represent the two agencies which control the intelligence gathering—the Intelligence Bureau and Research and Anaylsis Wing—will remain with him till the 2019 general elections. Incumbent IB chief Rajiv Jain and R&AW Director Anil Dhasmana will not hang up their boots by year-end when their two year fixed tenure comes to an end. Dhasmana was slated to retire on December 29 while Jain’s tenure was to end on December 30.
On Friday, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, gave both intelligence chiefs a six-month extension in their tenure.
Both Jain and Dhasmana have a good equation with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval who is particularly taking a lot of interest in intelligence matters, whether it is collection of domestic intelligence or foreign intelligence, while steering the national security policies of the incumbent government.
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With three decades of IB experience, Jain, a 1989 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Jharkhand cadre, is a specialist in cyber and economic matters. Jain's major stints in the IB include his postings as head of State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in Delhi for long years and joint director, IB, in Ahmedabad when Modi was the Gujarat chief minister.
Meanwhile, Dhasmana, a 1981 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre, is known for his handling of Pakistan affairs and was recently involved in the smooth extradition of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the VVIP chopper scam case, from Dubai. Sources said the government did not want to make changes in the intelligence top brass ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. That decision can be left to the new government, said an official.
For the time being, the race to the top in the spy organisations has been halted. Names of senior officers had already started doing the round as would-be successors.
In the R&AW, it was K. Ilango, former station chief in Colombo accused by Mahinda Rajapaksa of having managed the 2015 presidential polls in favour of Maitripala Sirisena, who was being tipped to head the agency. At the same time, the name of Samant Goyal, who has been named in the FIR in the CBI tussle, was also in the reckoning, so was Subodh Jaiswal, who is currently Mumbai Police chief. Jaiswal had done a stint in the R&AW and had got empaneled to hold a director-general post recently.
In the IB, the second senior most Arvind Kumar was being considered for the post against another contender Maharashtra Police chief Dattatray Padsalgikar.
However, the BJP government has made it clear that it is comfortable with its existing spy network and it would rather wait for the new government to select its senior most sleuths.
