Shivshankar Menon Named New NSA
Former foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon has been named as the new National Security Adviser (NSA), but he will be looking at a leaner brief unlike his predecessor MK Narayanan, reported IANS.
It was known that Menon was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first preference but the final decision was taken a couple of days ago after consultations with the political leadership, said report.
According to a senior government official, Menon’s name was cleared for the post by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Thursday and formal orders will be issued by the department of personnel and training in a day, report said.
Report said citing sources that Menon, who would be in the rank of minister of state, was likely to focus on the problems of diplomatic engagements rather than be involved in operational intelligence coordination.
It should be noted that the shift in emphasis was necessitated after Home Minister P Chidambaram unveiled a series of measures for revamping the country’s internal security architecture last month, indicating that he would be the internal security czar.
The new NSA brings in a wealth of experience having served as ambassador to China, Pakistan, Israel and Sri Lanka. He also played a crucial role along with Narayanan in accomplishing the India-US nuclear deal, ending the country’s isolation in the global nuclear arena.
