The government Tuesday gave another extension, of one year, to Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Tapan Deka – giving him four years in office, the longest for an IB chief in over three decades. The extension underlines the trust the Modi government reposes in Deka for management of internal security matters.
Sources said it comes on the back of several strides made by the IB under Deka’s leadership in the recent past, including generating specific intelligence in coordination with the R&AW on terror targets within Pakistan that were hit during Operation Sindoor.
Under him, the IB also spruced up its Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which was recently inaugurated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. A platform for coordinating intelligence-sharing among various security agencies, including those at the state level, the MAC under Deka has adopted new technologies that are expected to make it more efficient and effective.
“It is his initiative. He has pushed for adoption of new tools to analyse inputs. The electronic network for sharing information has been upgraded. It will improve situational awareness,” a security establishment officer said.
Sources said Deka has also earned the government’s trust by his ability to gauge its objectives, and to achieve the same without much fuss. “Immediately after he took over as the IB chief, he coordinated action against the Popular Front of India (PFI). Not only was the organisation banned, but there was a nationwide crackdown with a whole-of-government approach. This was a task pending for years. But he got it done without much trouble,” a Home Ministry official said.
Sources also gave the example of Kashmir. “The IB under him has managed the affairs in the Valley pretty well, barring the setback of the Pahalgam terror attack. There too, the IB had given an input of possible attack on tourists, although it was not specific to Pahalgam. Violence in general has gone down in the past few years and law and order has been under control. Last year, only four youths joined militant ranks from the Valley,” an intelligence officer from J&K said.
In fact, sources said, it was his work in J&K as Special Director of the IB, that first earned him the trust of the Union Home Minister, leading to his elevation as IB chief superseding his senior A Sema Rajan.
Deka had arrived in J&K relatively raw, having never worked exclusively in the region. This was post the abrogation of Article 370, and amid a series of attacks on civilians by ‘hybrid’ terrorists, as those who mostly functioned as overground workers of terror outfits were called. In 2021-22, when there were killings of some migrants and Kashmiri Pandits, Deka visited the Valley almost every fortnight.
“He ensured the killings came down. And he managed it without ruffling any feathers in the Valley establishment,” an officer said, adding that the fact that he was discreet and kept his own counsel were other qualities that appealed to the Modi government.
Since 2021, even before he became the IB chief, Deka has accompanied Shah on almost all his visits to J&K.
Sources said that under Deka, the IB has also generated credible intelligence in the Left Wing Extremism zones in the country, ensuring seamless coordination between state and Central agencies and forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations. This, sources said, has been among the key reasons for the success of security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist zones.
A 1988-batch IPS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, Deka started his IB stint in the early ’90s with a posting in the Northeast, at a time when insurgent movements were at their peak. Soon, he had demonstrated his ability to handle complex situations.
He later served in the Northeast again at the level of Additional Director.
His longest and most important stint started with his move to the Operations branch of the IB, where he spent more than a decade. The branch handles matters of terrorism across the country and generates intelligence to neutralise the same.
Deka was the Operations Joint Director when the Indian Mujahideen (IM) carried out a series of terror attacks. The IB under Deka tracked almost each of its operatives over the years and brought them to book. The IM has been practically incapacitated since 2012, when Yasin Bhatkal was arrested from Nepal, followed by the subsequent arrest of Tehsin Akhtar.
Deka was also in charge during the rise of the Islamic State, and was instrumental in shaping India’s response to recruits joining the organisation from the country. India had adopted a calibrated response, where first-time offenders attracted to the Islamic State were merely counselled and let go, instead of being arrested.
Deka was also handling Operations during the 2015-16 Pathankot air base attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack.
When he became the IB chief, he followed in the footsteps of Ajit Doval and Nehchal Sandhu, who also handled Operations before heading the agency.
Deka’s colleagues laud his ability to remain calm and composed even in extreme pressure situations. “He rarely gets angry or is flustered and is soft spoken. It is also very comfortable to work with him since he takes everyone along and respects every opinion,” said one of his colleagues.
The extension for Deka comes at a time when the Pahalgam attack – different from other attacks in specifically targeting tourists, and after determining their religious affiliation – is a cause of concern for the security establishment. Apart from what the terror strike means for Kashmir, the IB chief is also staring at the challenge of the rise of terrorism in the Jammu region in the past three years.
