The Brains Behind Modi Sarkar
How did a little-known think-tank end up supplying so many bureaucrats to the NDA
government? Brijesh Singh reports
What do Ajit Doval, Nripendra Misra and PK Misra have in common? Of course, they are top
bureaucrats whom Narendra Modi handpicked to run his team. There is another common factor.
They all hail from New Delhi-based think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).
Former IB director Ajit Doval was steering the ship at VIF as founder-director before he was
appointed as Modi’s National Security Adviser. He was advising Modi even before the
government was formed. In fact, it was Doval who came up with the idea of inviting South Asian
leaders to Modi’s oath-taking ceremony.
After his stint as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman was over,
Nripendra Misra became a member of the VIF’s executive council. Now, he is Modi’s principal
secretary. There was a legal hitch in his appointment as TRAI law bars former chairmen from
holding government positions. But Modi wanted him so bad that he tabled an ordinance to amend
the law.
Former Union agriculture secretary PK Misra was associated with the VIF as a Senior Fellow.
Now, he is the additional principal secretary to the prime minister.
Other VIF members whom the Modi regime has tapped for inputs include former RAW chief CD
Sahay, former urban development secretary Anil Baijal, former ambassador to Russia Prabhat
Shukla, former IAF chief SG Inamdar and former BSF chief Prakash Singh.
Former army chief Gen (retd) NC Vij has replaced Doval as VIF director. Sources claim that
many other VIF members are likely to be enrolled in the government at significant posts soon.
There are reports that former DRDO director general VK Saraswat, who is currently the dean of
the Centre for Scientific and Technological Studies at VIF, might replace Chief Scientific
Adviser R Chidambaram.
Interestingly, the first book that Modi released after assuming office was Getting India Back on
Track. Its editor is none other than Bibek Debroy, who is the dean of VIF’s Centre for Economic
Studies.
So, what is the VIF? Who are the people associated with it? When and how did the think-tank
become a breeding ground of candidates to fill Modi’s bureaucracy?
VIF is Doval’s brainchild. After his retirement from the IB in 2005, he focussed his energies in
creating the think-tank. On 10 December 2009, Mata Amritanandamayi and Justice MN
Venkatachaliah inaugurated the foundation.
The VIF is affiliated to the Kanyakumari-based Vivekananda Kendra, which was established by
RSS organiser Eknath Ranade in 1970. In 1993, the Narasimha Rao government allotted land to
the Vivekanada Kendra in Chanakyapuri. And VIF was founded at the same spot.
The think-tank’s website introduces the organisation in the following words, “The VIF is a New
Delhi-based think-tank set up with the collaborative efforts of India’s leading security experts,
diplomats, industrialists and philanthropists under the aegis of the Vivekananda Kendra. The
VIF’s objective is to become a centre of excellence to kick-start innovative ideas and thoughts
that can lead to a stronger, secure and prosperous India playing its destined role in global affairs.”
About its vision and mission, the website adds, “The VIF is an independent, non-partisan
institution that promotes quality research and in-depth studies and is a platform for dialogue and
conflict resolution. It strives to bring together the best minds in India to ideate on key national
and international issues; promote initiatives that further the cause of peace and global harmony;
monitor social, economic and political trends that have a bearing on India’s unity and integrity.”
The VIF has many scholars as members of its advisory and executive councils, besides former
army chiefs, former ambassadors, foreign secretaries, retired RAW and IB officials, bureaucrats
as well as other key officials who have held top posts at the Centre (see box).
The VIF chiefly works in eight different areas: national security and strategic studies,
international relations and diplomacy, neighbourhood studies, governance and political studies,
economic studies, historical and civilisational studies, technological and scientific studies, and
media studies.
The VIF invites scholars and experts from all over the world for conferences and lectures. It
presents India’s outlook before the New Delhi-based diplomatic community and takes their inputs
to further the country’s political, strategic, economic and cultural interests. It also holds dialogues
with policymakers on current affairs. It gives policy advice to government representatives, MPs,
members of the judiciary and civil society. It also carries out exchange of ideas with academic
institutes and research centres.
“The foundation has done commendable work in the past 5-6 years,” says former RAW chief
Anand Verma, who is now a member of the VIF advisory board. “Top-level research has been
conducted in various fields. Numerous seminars of national and international significance have
been organised. It has held dialogues with various global think-tanks. Senior officials, including
government and nongovernmental ones, from all over the world are invited for interactions. Since
the think-tank has its own rules, many of its discussions are not made public.”
Modi has had a long association with the VIF. Sources reveal that he constantly took counsel
from this institute regarding economic and security issues when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
In fact, the VIF core team helped Modi draft the blueprint of his election campaign.
“We were confident that Modi would be elected as prime minister,” says a VIF member. “That’s
why we had been working on developing foreign, security and economic policies, etc. During the
run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, he was provided all the necessary inputs on various issues by the
VIF. In fact, the major intellectual inputs for his political campaign in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
and Jammu was organised by the foundation.”
Sources in the foundation confirm Modi’s affinity towards VIF, which prominent BJP and Sangh
Parivar leaders approach for inputs on governance issues.
The links between Modi and the VIF became apparent last year. When Congress leaders attacked
Modi in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Doval jumped to his defence. The then VIF director
argued that Ishrat was a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Congress-led
UPA government was politicising the whole matter.
In the run-up to the General Election, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal alleged
that under Modi’s watch, industrialists made huge profits in Gujarat, while no actual development
had taken place in the state.
Following the accusation, a group named Concerned Citizens sprang to life and came out with a
statement that AAP was making unsubstantiated allegations in a bid to help the Congress in the
General Election. The members included Doval, author MV Kamath, journalist MJ Akbar, former
Jammu & Kashmir governor SK Sinha, former bureaucrat MN Buch and economist Bibek
Debroy. It was clearly part of the foundation’s strategy.
The VIF’s major achievement has been the building up of an anti-UPA (read anti- Congress)
atmosphere in the past few years. Sources close to the foundation claim that VIF members played
a significant role in mobilising the anti-corruption movement across the country in 2011.
“In April 2011, the decision to create an anti-corruption forum under Baba Ramdev was taken
here,” reveals a VIF member on the condition of anonymity. “It had been planned for almost a
year.In collaboration with KN Govindacharya’s Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, the foundation
organised a two-day seminar on black money and corruption on 1 April 2011. Baba Ramdev,
Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi attended the programme. At the end of the seminar, an anti-
corruption front was formed with Baba Ramdev as patron and Govindacharya as organiser. The
members included Ajit Doval, Bhishm Agnihotri (ambassador-at-large to the US when the NDA
was in power), Prof R Vaidyanathan from IIM Bangalore, Ved Pratap Vaidik, journalist and Baba
Ramdev’s close aide, and (author and financial expert) S Gurumurthy.”
Meanwhile, Govindacharya organised a meeting between Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. VIF
members devised a strategy that both of them will push the anti-corruption movement forward.
Three days after the seminar, Hazare began a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. By the end of April,
Ramdev had also announced an anti-UPA protest on 4 June at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
Rumour has it that the plan to corner the Congress was allegedly drafted by VIF at the behest of
the BJP and the RSS. On one hand, Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev were raking up the
corruption issue and protesting against the government. On the other hand, the BJP was adding
fuel to fire. This is why senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh kept referring to the anti-
corruption movement as an RSS conspiracy. But as the movement reached its peak and the UPA
government came up with absurd steps to tackle the situation, nobody paid him any heed.
The VIF’s alleged links with the RSS has come in handy for Modi’s critics. Sangh leaders
regularly visit the VIF, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leader LK Advani actively
engage with it. Recently, Bhagwat was at the VIF to release former diplomat OP Gupta’s
book Defining Hindutva. Since the VIF emerged out of the Vivekananda Kendra, critics believe it
would be a mistake to consider the VIF separate from the RSS.
“VIF is an RSS project,” says a critic. “The first thing you notice when you enter the building is a
photograph of Eknath Ranade. VIF is filled with right-wing officials. As they were marginalised
intellectually, they created their own think-tank. It is a desperate attempt to get acknowledged in
the intellectual world. If it is not so, then why does the RSS chief keep visiting the VIF?”
The critic provides some examples of the VIF’s alleged right-wing bias. “When the controversy
over Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative Historyerupted, Senior Fellow Makkhan
Lal wrote that the incident has provided pseudo-secularists and anti-Hindus an opportunity to
play their old trick where, in the name of freedom of speech, they bitterly criticise the Hindus,”
he says. “While analysing the Lok Sabha election mandate, joint-director Prabhat Shukla wrote
that the results were the outcome of the exploitation of Hindus, which has been going on for
decades. Another fellow, Anirban Ganguly, wrote in his research paper titled Man and
Environment in India: Past Traditions and Present Challenges about how Hinduism is
intrinsically aware of the natural surroundings and that the tradition finds mention in the Vedas
and Arthashastra. If it is not right-wing ideology, then what is?”
However, KG Suresh, editor of the foundation’s magazine Patrika, rubbishes such allegations. “I
don’t understand why there is so much negative reporting,” he says. “A picture is being projected
as if everyone in the foundation is roaming around in khakis. It is wrong to link the foundation
with the RSS. We are totally apolitical. Neither the BJP nor the RSS is funding us.
“We are neither pro-BJP nor anti- Congress. When the UPA was in power, we backed the
government on the Devyani Khobragade issue. Similarly, we supported the UPA in the land swap
deal with Bangladesh, while the Opposition raised a furore. Hence, it is wrong to call us anti-
Congress. It is true that the top leadership of the BJP and the RSS take inputs from us on various
issues, but even Congress leaders participate in our seminars.”
Verma is also at pains to emphasise that the VIF has no political leanings. “The think-tank is
absolutely non-political and secular,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the RSS. The sole
objective of the foundation is to find solutions to the various challenges before the country.
“I don’t look at the RSS the same way as the Congress does. What wrong is the RSS doing? It is
only trying to restore the esteem of the Hindu community. Those who don’t understand it, abuse
the Sangh. It is establishing the ancient sanskritik principles. It’s doing good work.
“When Swami Vivekananda delivered his speech in Chicago in 1893, it caught the world’s
attention. But he was criticised for giving rise to a new Hinduism. If even Vivekananda is not
considered secular, then who can be considered so?”
Agrees Maroof Raza, a consultant and strategic affairs expert with Times Now, who regularly
participates in various programmes organised by the foundation. “Although there are rumours
about VIF’s association with the RSS, no right-wing bias has come to light,” he says. “In fact, the
foundation is doing excellent work.”
To buttress his point, Verma adds, “Recently, we organised a conference on the Kashmir issue
and members from the PDP, Congress and National Conference took part in the discussion.
(Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief ) Maulana Mahmood Madani also visited the foundation recently. So
has the head of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Even the Dalai Lama
has attended several programmes here.”
Adds another VIF member, “When the UPA was in power, many PMO officials attended our
seminars. In fact, minister Kumari Selja came here to release a book.”
Shedding light on the VIF’s objectives, Verma says, “Among significant issues taken up by the
foundation, one is to present the correct cultural, traditional and spiritual aspects of India. We
have studied from books that offered a distorted version of our history. Today, we learn history
from books prepared by the British and (Thomas) Macaulay. Their objective was to make us feel
inferior and destroy our fundamental Indian values. We need to know our actual history and the
foundation is working towards it. The history of India is being rewritten in 10-11 volumes, of
which half are ready.
“It was necessary to establish VIF. The situation was such that whenever someone talked about
Indian culture, Leftist intellectuals would dismiss him or her. They felt he or she was preaching
Hinduism. The Leftist historians see RSS conspiracy in anything that involves culture.”
Adds Suresh, “Indian history must be nationalised. The Left has already been marginalised
politically. Now, it will be marginalised intellectually. We had been on the margins so far, now it
is their turn.”
Another VIF member echoes the sentiment. “Most of the think-tanks are governed by Leftists,”
he says. “Ours is a platform for non-Leftists and nationalists who were considered untouchables
in the intellectual world.”
On the subject of funding, Verma says, “This institute is funded by people from all over the
world. It is not funded by any government organisation. People like you and me fund it.” In 2013,
VIF reportedly received donations worth 1.5 crore.
Verma rubbishes allegations that the Sangh Parivar played a part in the appointment of Doval and
Misra, saying that their elevation was made purely on merit. “I know the bureaucracy inside out,”
says Verma. “I can declare with conviction that they have no match in the entire civil services.
Just as they say about Modi, there is nobody like Doval.”
But are they not close to the Sangh Parivar? “Doval is a completely apolitical person,” he replies.
“Yes, personally he may have cultural preferences, but in public life, he is very professional.”
As VIF basks in the newfound limelight, foreign dignitaries are making a beeline to the think-
tank. Just days after Doval’s elevation, two Chinese delegations came calling. The same day, a
17-member British team, including Royal College of Defence Studies commandant David Bill,
visited the place. Later, a delegation from the US Army War College held discussions with VIF’s
security experts on nuclear weapons. Experts from the French Atomic Energy Agency and
diplomats also paid a visit to discuss various matters, including security issues.
As more and more VIF members join the Narendra Modi sarkar, it is a no-brainer that the think-
tank will play a key role in formulating the country’s foreign, economic and security policies.
Translated from Tehelka Hindi by Naushin Rehman
What was the role of Vivekananda
International Foundation (VIF) in Anna
Andolan?
http://Tehelka.com
My guess is that the article you quote is true. The congress leaders were crying
hoarse over this when Anna agitation happened and I distinctly remember it.
But no one took that seriously because Congress & BJP are usually in the habit
of criticising each other even without needing any reason as such.
Whatever the actual truth is will not come out in its entireity because the VIF
was headed by legendary spy and today's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval
who is too legendary in his spy activities in Pakistan relating to securing Indian
interests to let the actual events out. My guess is that this entire Anna agitation
was to be a launch pad for Narendra Modi.
Inspite of being the best Spy in India (probably in the world) Ajit Doval was not
sought after because of his hardline nationalist image which the congress did
not find comfortable. In 2005 (I guess), after retiring from IB, Ajit doval on his
own is said to have cultivated some gangsters (without informing even the
government of the country) to kill Dawood Ibrahim in the wedding ceremony of
his daughter in Dubai but his plans were foiled in the last moment after police
intercepted some phone lines of gangsters. It is alleged that congress
government used to fear him so much that they used to spy his activities.
Needless to say, all this would have pissed him off and Ajit doval may have
concluded that this government should go. He might be the brain behind the
Anna agitation which highlighted the wrongdoings of congress government. I
won't be too surprised if his hand is found in the unearthing of scams while
Subramanium swamy got credit for doing it.
Having said that, I am just making up a story which fits into the whole article
which you quoted and may be wrong. In any case, I see Ajit doval as a true
patriot if he did that because he ousted a government not by using dirty games
which most intelligence agents are prone to using. He destroyed the congress
by raising protestors some of whom went on to become good politicians like
Arvind Kejriwal & Kiran bedi. He stayed within the sytem even though
Intelligence agents are usually trained to get things done by any means
including dirty means.
Just like politicians like Kejriwal created a sense of disgust for congress to
replace the government, it is possible that Ajit doval worked hard and did the
same behind the scenes in his own style using his own methods without
damaging the democratic set-up. In fact, In my opinion Anna agitation which
later turned into political party AAP just strengthened the system.
I read a few months back that NSA Ajit doval was very angry with the fact that
Sri lanka let the Chinese Submarine into their territory and allowed China to
surround India as per their strategy. Last time heard, RAW agents are allegedly
said to be involved in the loss of President Mahendra Rajapaksha government in
Sri lanka because he was getting too friendly with China. I am damn sure that
this is Ajit doval's idea again. We always needed such men who will ruthlessly
protect Indian interests.
The Brains Behind Modi Sarkar:
How did a little-known think-
tank end up supplying so many
bureaucrats to the NDA
government?
Brijesh Singh, Tehelka
26/07/2014
Full article
'What do Ajit Doval, Nripendra Misra and PK Misra have in common? Of course,
they are top bureaucrats whom Narendra Modi handpicked to run his team.
There is another common factor. They all hail from New Delhi-based think-tank
Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).
Former IB director Ajit Doval was steering the ship at VIF as founder-director
before he was appointed as Modi’s National Security Adviser. He was advising
Modi even before the government was formed. In fact, it was Doval who came
up with the idea of inviting South Asian leaders to Modi’s oath-taking ceremony.
After his stint as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman
was over, Nripendra Misra became a member of the VIF’s executive council.
Now, he is Modi’s principal secretary. There was a legal hitch in his
appointment as TRAI law bars former chairmen from holding government
positions. But Modi wanted him so bad that he tabled an ordinance to amend
the law.
Former Union agriculture secretary PK Misra was associated with the VIF as a
Senior Fellow. Now, he is the additional principal secretary to the prime
minister.
Other VIF members whom the Modi regime has tapped for inputs include
former RAW chief CD Sahay, former urban development secretary Anil Baijal,
former ambassador to Russia Prabhat Shukla, former IAF chief SG Inamdar and
former BSF chief Prakash Singh.
Former army chief Gen (retd) NC Vij has replaced Doval as VIF director.
Sources claim that many other VIF members are likely to be enrolled in the
government at significant posts soon. There are reports that former DRDO
director general VK Saraswat, who is currently the dean of the Centre for
Scientific and Technological Studies at VIF, might replace Chief Scientific
Adviser R Chidambaram.
Interestingly, the first book that Modi released after assuming office was
Getting India Back on Track. Its editor is none other than Bibek Debroy, who is
the dean of VIF’s Centre for Economic Studies.
So, what is the VIF? Who are the people associated with it? When and how did
the think-tank become a breeding ground of candidates to fill Modi’s
bureaucracy?...' (Continue reading.)
