New Delhi: The national security advisor, Ajit Doval, on Saturday recalled an episode from his early intelligence career when personnel sent on a border mission ended up in Chinese custody, leaving him convinced that his career was over. An inquiry was subsequently launched into the episode but, according to Doval, he was not found at fault.
Doval was addressing the convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, where he was the chief guest. Recalling his early career, he said he was a young Indian Police Service officer in his 20s and new to intelligence work when he was posted as intelligence in-charge in Sikkim, during the period when the territory was becoming part of India.
At the time, Sikkim was an Indian protectorate rather than a full state of the Union. Under the arrangement established in 1950, it retained autonomy over its internal affairs while India was responsible for defence, communications and external relations. Sikkim became India’s 22nd state in 1975.
Doval recalled that his responsibilities included monitoring border areas and gathering intelligence on the movements and activities of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). During one such assignment, personnel were sent on an intelligence mission in the border area and were expected to return after about eight days.
When they failed to return even after 10 to 15 days, Doval said he became increasingly concerned about their fate. There had been no report of an avalanche or another incident that could explain their disappearance, and he did not know whether the personnel were alive.
Doval said he subsequently received a telephone call from headquarters informing him that the personnel were in Chinese custody. According to his recollection, they had been caught and interrogated before eventually being returned. He said he believed talks, negotiations or some form of deal may have led to their release, but did not present the existence of such an arrangement as fact.
The personnel returned “totally shattered, in shambles”, Doval recalled. An inquiry was then launched, prompting the young officer to fear that the incident had brought his intelligence career to an abrupt end.
“I knew that this was the end of my career,” Doval said, recalling that he believed he might have to start another career, and regarded the episode as highly unprofessional. The inquiry, however, did not find him at fault. Doval said the sketches and maps supplied by headquarters had contained defects and mistakes.
Although he was not held responsible, Doval recalled being deeply upset by the episode, describing it as one of those periods in life when “you feel very down”. He then received advice from an elderly Tibetan Sherpa colleague in the Intelligence Bureau who, Doval said, had spent years navigating snow-covered mountains.
The colleague reduced map-reading to three essentials: knowing where one is, knowing where one wants to go, and knowing the route to get there. Doval told the graduating students that the advice eventually became a broader lesson for him about navigating life itself.