B.RAMAN
1962:India suffered a humiliating set-back in the
Sino-Indian war. Many believed that the set-back was attributable to the then
political, military and intelligence leadership. An enquiry was held into some
of the aspects of the set-back. This enquiry report has not so far been
released to the Indian public
1965-66:India suffered two set-backs. During the
Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, the Indian Army unit, which was ordered to open the
Lahore front, got bogged down. The Army blamed the Intelligence Bureau for poor
intelligence regarding the Ichogil Canal. In 1966, the Mizo National Front
under Laldenga took the Indian Security Forces by surprise and practically
over-ran the entire Mizoram. The Army retrieved the ground subsequently and
beat back the MNF.A senior officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the
Government of India was asked to enquire into allegations of failure by the IB
in both the cases. His reports reportedly absolved the IB of any blame for
these set-backs, but led to the decision of Indira Gandhi to bifurcate the IB
and create the R&AW on September 21,1968, to deal with external
intelligence. The Indian public and research scholars have been denied access
to these enquiry reports.
1971: The R&AW, hardly three years old,
played a highly-commended role in the
events of 1971 preceding the Indo-Pakistan War of December 1971 that
contributed to the success of the Bangladesh freedom-fighters. As it happens in
the case of secret agencies, many of the decisions, operations and other
actions of the R&AW were based on oral instructions from Mrs.Gandhi and
others who played a role in the decision-making at the higher levels. There was
no written documentation in the Archives of the R&AW giving a total picture
of the role of the R&AW. In 1982, Indira Gandhi recalled R.N.Kao from retirement and appointed him as Senior
Adviser in the Cabinet Secretariat. He felt that in the absence of an authentic
written documentation of the role of the R&AW, future generations of
R&AW officers would remain in the dark about the operations of the R&AW
during 1971----particularly after all the officers who had played a role in
1971 pass away. At his suggestion, the R&AW recalled from retirement an
officer of the Army information wing who had served in the R&AW in 1971 and
asked him to interview all officers, senior and junior, who had played a role
in 1971 and write an authentic narrative of the role of the R&AW in 1971.He
did part of the work. Kao resigned after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on
October 31,1984. The R&AW terminated the services of this officer and
discontinued the project. Many of the officers, who had played a role in 1971,
including Kao himself, have since passed away. About half a dozen are still
alive--- either in their late 70s or early 80s. A legendary officer from Kerala,
of whom any intelligence agency in the world will be proud and who acted as the
right hand man of Kao in 1971, is in his early 90s. When these officers also
pass away in the next few years, no authentic record of the role of the
R&AW in the events of 1971 will be available. Their knowledge, however
feeble now, will die and be cremated with them. The Government should revive
this project urgently, complete it quickly and make it available to the public
and scholars.
1975-77: The Intelligence agencies and the Central
Bureau of Investigation played a role in enabling Indira Gandhi to proclaim and
sustain the State of Emergency for three years. There were allegations of
serious misuse of the agencies by her and her advisers in the Government and
the Congress to browbeat her critics and those opposed to the Emergency. The
Morarji Desai Government, which came to office in 1977, ordered two enquiries
into these allegations and other connected matters relating to the Emergency.
The first was a quasi-judicial enquiry by the Shah Commission. The second was
an administrative enquiry into the alleged misuse of the agencies conducted by
a committee headed by L.P.Singh, who was Home Secretary under Indira Gandhi in
the years before the Emergency. The Shah Commission’s report was released to
the public, but the L.P.Singh committee report was not released to the public
by any of the Governments that had held office since 1980. Hopes and
expectations that the A.B.Vajpayee Government would release the L.P.Singh Committee
report and other documents relating to the Emergency were belied. It is high
time now to release all these accounts to the public so that we have a
comprehensive and authentic record of the State of Emergency in public domain.
1984:Mrs.Gandhi made frantic efforts to avoid
having to send the Army into the Golden Temple at Amritsar for what came to be
known as Operation Bluestar. She initiated back channel talks/contacts with
important Sikh leaders in the Punjab as well as in the diaspora to find a
peaceful outcome. The back channel contacts with important Sikh leaders of the
Punjab were handled by Rajiv Gandhi and his young associates. One back channel
contact with a Sikh leader of the diaspora was handled by Kao. These back
channel contacts spoke very positively of Indira Gandhi and her sincere search
for a peaceful outcome to the crisis in the Golden Temple. The Government
should ensure that the documents relating to these back channel contacts are
properly preserved for evaluation after some years whether they could be
released to the public.
2002: Kao passed away in January 2002. Before his
death, he had reportedly recorded a narrative of some of his experiences and
had it deposited for safe custody in the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Library in
New Delhi for release to the public some years after his death. One doesn’t know
what time-bar he had put on its release to the public. It is now more than 10
years after his death. The Government owes it to the memory of Kao, who had
served the country so brilliantly, to ensure that his narrative becomes
available to the public once the time-bar is over. Any attempt to keep it
permanently in darkness in the Library would be an insult to the memory of this distinguished and proud son of India.
The Government should appoint a high-powered group
to go into all these reports and documents, excise portions that could have an
adverse impact on State-to-State relations with other countries and release the
rest to the public. Possible domestic
embarrassments should not be a ground for excising any portion(23-6-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
