Amarjit Singh Dulat (born 1940) is an Indian bureaucrat former

spymaster A spymaster is a leader of a group of spies or an intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforce ...

and a former special director of the Intelligence Bureau he also served as Secretary of

R&AW The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) is the foreign intelligence agency of the Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous ...

from 1999 to 2000. After retirement, he was appointed as an advisor on

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

in the Prime Minister's Office and served there from January 2000 to May 2004.

Career

Born in a Sikh Dulat family, Dulat joined the

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

from Rajasthan Cadre in 1965, and in March 1969, joined the Intelligence Bureau. He was educated at

Bishop Cotton School, Shimla Bishop Cotton School is a private boarding school for boys aged 7-18 years old in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. It is one of the oldest boarding schools for boys in Asia, having been founded on 28 July 1859 by Bishop George Edward Lynch Co ...

and graduated from

Panjab University, Chandigarh Panjab University (PU) is an Indian collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh. Funded through both State and Union governments, it is considered a state university. It traces its origins to the University of the Punjab in Laho ...

. He served in Kashmir as Joint Director in the Intelligence Bureau from 1988 to 1990 which was arguably the most troublesome time in the valley. His entered Kashmiri politics in 1990 through Shabir Shah, whom he called "big daddy of militants." He then moved to Intelligence Bureau where he was promoted to the rank of Special Director. In 1999, he became chief of Research and Analysis Wing until his December 2000 retirement.

Post retirement

His 2015 book ''Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years'', earned media attention. In 2018, he co-authored '' The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace'' with

Asad Durrani Asad Ahmed Durrani (; born 7 February 1941) is a retired 3-star rank general in the Pakistan Army and presently a commentator, speaker and author. Durrani previously served as the 10th Director General of the ISI and former Director General of ...

, former head of the

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the premier Pakistani Intelligence community, intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant t ...

. Dulat has criticised

Ajit Doval Ajit Kumar Doval, Kirti Chakra, KC (born 20 January 1945) is an Indian bureaucrat and spymaster, who is currently serving as the National Security Advisor of India since 2014. A retired Indian Police Service officer of the Kerala cadre, he had p ...

, the National Security Advisor, by calling Doval "hawkish" for his hardline position on handling border disputes with China. In Dulat's book, ''A Life In The Shadows: A Memoir'', published in 2022, a full chapter was focused on Doval strategy of "muscular power" in

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

. In 2023, he also criticised Doval's doctrine for handling the

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1 ...

with Pakistan.

Bibliography

*''Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years'' (with Aditya Sinha) (HarperCollins, 2015) *'' The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace'' (with

and Aditya Sinha) (HarperCollins, 2018) *''A Life In The Shadows: A Memoir (HarperCollins, 2022)''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dulat, A. S. Indian Police Service officers People of the Research and Analysis Wing 1940 births Living people Intelligence Bureau (India) Indian spies Indian political writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Panjab University alumni Bishop Cotton School Shimla alumni