National Security Advisor Ajit Doval attended the IIT Roorkee convocation as the chief guest and called graduates the luckiest generation in a millennium. A total of 2,701 students were awarded degrees during the two-day ceremony where Chief of Defence Staff General N.S. Raja Subramani joined as the guest of honour.
Ajit Doval shared an account from his early days in the intelligence service regarding a high-stakes border mission during the merger of Sikkim with India. He recalled a time when an intelligence team sent across the border was captured and interrogated by Chinese forces before being repatriated.
Doval admitted he feared the incident marked the end of his career, but an inquiry later found him not at fault due to defects in maps provided by headquarters.Senior Advocate Harish Salve also spoke at the event and urged graduates to recognise shifting global realities.
Salve cautioned students never to take freedom and democracy for granted while noting that the rules-based world order is no longer sacrosanct.
