New Succession Line Of IB But North Block's Message Remains The Same

With around nine months left, IB's Special Director Harinath Mishra was moved to the Cabinet Secretariat as Secretary of Security despite having an alternate available in the Cabinet Secretariat. Top sources say that Mishra's batchmate Shyam Bhagat Negi was a suitable candidate for the job of Secretary Security; however, Negi was overlooked, and an officer with a short span was given the job. Mishra was second in command of IB, handling immigration affairs and charge of Chandigarh SIB. Sources say that usually, Special Directors in the Immirgation are on trajectory of getting retired as it is not so significant post, . Still, in the case of Mishra, he also had decent time to reckon for the next IB Chief, which makes his exit look like a hierarchal adjustment in IB to clear the line for new chain of command in the bureau with R.A Chandrashekar becoming number two. Sapna Tiwari assumed the third command position, followed by two Special Directors, Mahesh Dixit and Ritwik Rudra. 

However, a repeated message of centre will always remain in the loop, i.e., the requirement for strategic foresight in tradecraft, which most IB officers seriously lack. Top sources add that Mishra could have been given an easy send-off like it was given to Man Mohan Singh, who served almost for a year in IB despite being batchmate of current IB Chief Tapan Deka. Sources add that the centre now wants to clean the stagnancy in strategic decisions, especially in Intelligence agencies, which have been visible in the current IB leadership. A few months back, BSF DG was removed, and a few appointments followed, with Nalin Prabhat taking over J&K DGP. 

These quiet adjustments have cleared the centre's intentions for the top brass in various security agencies, resulting in an oriented approach tempered by strategic decision-making and some key expectations of South and North Blocks. For the Intelligence Bureau, this is perhaps the second occasional message for IB  after the centre moved Vivek Srivastava and Rahul Rasogtra out of the bureau last year. The new line of succession must fine-tune their tradecraft skills to deliver results and significantly contribute to strategic decision-making.