NSA Ajit Doval offers prayers at his native village Gheedhi in Pauri Garhwal

The entire visit was kept secret from the media glare to strictly keep it a family affair but as soon as the people of the area came to know of the VIP visit people from Gheedi and adjoining village started pouring in at the village in good numbers.

Soon the word spread and the local media too thronged the village. NSA Ajit Doval who was reappointed as NSA for the second five year term with elevation to the cabinet rank reached his ancestral village Gheedhi on the morning on 22nd June alongwith his wife and son in traditional attire wearing Kurta Pyjama and a Pahadi cap and offered prayers to his family diety Maa Kalinka Devi for an hour or so amidst chanting of spiritual hyms and thereafter confabulated with the villagers in the local Garhwali dialect.

The inhabitants of Gheedhi and surrounding villages felt extremely jubilant to talk to him. The village woman Pradhan requested him for a metalled road till the village. NSA Doval donated Rs. 1.5 lakhs to the local temple authorities to beautify the temple vicinity and also promised to give more money if they require in future for the remaining beautification work around the temple.

The NSA and his family stayed in the village for 2 to three hours and later on returned back to Delhi. His entire cavalcade consisted of six cars including the Z plus security cover and the state security. Gheedhi village comes under the Kot development block in Pauri Garhwal district. Ajit Doval usually comes to his village for offering prayers to the village diety.

He had visited for the first time after a long interval in 2015 as well when he was appointed as the NSA with state minister’s rank by prime minister Narendra Modi after the formation of first NDA government at the centre.