The Narendra Modi government on Saturday named new chiefs to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
New RAW chief
Anil Dhasmana has been named the new chief of India's spy agency RAW, which looks after intelligence-gathering from foreign lands. Dhasmana is a 1981-batch Madhya Pradesh-cadre officer. He will be replacing Rajinder Khanna, a 1978-batch IPS officer. In fact, Khanna was the first person to be elected RAW chief from within the organisation, as opposed to his predecessors — right from founding-director RN Kao — who were chosen from outside the organisation.
Dhasmana is reportedly an expert on Balochistan, a restive province in Pakistan that claims the country annexed it soon after gaining independence in 1947. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the issue of Balochistan during the Independence Day speech this year — a move seen by political observers as countering Pakistan's constant harping on Kashmir.
New IB chief
Rajiv Jain has been named the new chief of the IB, which gathers intelligence within India. Jain is a 1980-batch Jharkhand-cadre officer. He will be replacing Dineshwar Sharma, a Kerala-cadre 1979-batch IPS officer. Both Jain and Dhasmana were frontrunners for the respective posts they have been chosen for.
It had already been reported that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), IB and RAW would get new chiefs. The CBI has since got a new director in 1984-batch Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana, who replaced Anil Sinha. According to an official statement from the CBI, Asthana "has been decorated with the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2001 and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished service in 2009."
