Former R&AW chief to be new deputy NSA

RAJINDER KHANNA ALSO SERVED AS

THE HEAD OF R&AW’S COUNTERTERRORISM OPERATIONS

NEW DELHI: Rajinder Khanna, a former head of the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), will be the next deputy national security adviser.

Khanna’s name was cleared by the appointments committee of the cabinet, which is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday.

The deputy NSA’S post was lying vacant since Arvind Gupta completed his three-year tenure in August 2017.

Serving as officer on special duty (neighbourhood studies) with the national security council (NSC) secretariat, Khanna would be employed “on contract basis until further orders”, the order said.

Neighbourhood Studies prepares policy papers on countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The NSC, headed by Modi with national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval as secretary, is the apex body on internal and external security matters.

Before taking over as the R&AW chief in 2014, Khanna led the agency’s counter-terrorism operations. A Rajasthan cadre Indian Police Service officer of the 1978 batch, Khanna joined the R&AW on deputation and was later absorbed in the agency.

It is for the first time that both the NSA and his deputy are former intelligence officers. Doval retired as the chief of Intelligence Bureau, India’s internal intelligence agency.