In a major effort to bolster national security, the Centre reorganised the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) on Wednesday, inducting several prominent personalities from the Armed Forces, Intelligence Agencies, and Police.
Ex-Intel Chief Alok Joshi will head the new board after a shake-up that occurs at the moment the government is in the process of rebooting its approach to apply further pressure on Pakistan along diplomatic, economic, and military avenues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has openly declared that India would relentlessly chase and punish those who were involved in the Pahalgam killings and threaten to track them down wherever they might be.
Alok Joshi, a former chief of India's Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), will head the seven-member NSAB. Members of the board are high-profile retired officials from different walks of life, including the Armed Forces, Police, and Foreign Service.
Notable appointments to the reconstituted NSAB include former Western Air Commander Air Marshal PM Sinha and former Southern Army Commander Lt Gen AK Singh. Two former IPS officers, Rajiv Ranjan Verma and Manmohan Singh, and retired Indian Foreign Service officer B. Venkatesh Varma have also joined the reconstituted board.
This reshuffle is in the background of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a number of high-level interactions with Union Ministers at his private residence, where there have been meetings in the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), and the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) or commonly referred to as the 'super cabinet.'
In a future cabinet briefing, the government is to announce further measures, the second round of sanctions and other actions against Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, including the gruesome Pahalgam massacre targeting tourists in the Kashmir Valley.
The reconstituted NSAB will have a critical role to play in determining India's response as the nation tries to retaliate against the carnage and bring Pakistan to account for its complicity in orchestrating one of the bloodiest terror attacks in recent history.
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