RAW A History of India's Covert Operations: Tiger Zinda hai?

RAW and Covert operations

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

To a cynic like me, Indian Intelligence Operations, covert or overt sound like an oxymoron and the History of Indian Inteligence agencies since Independence has more or less proved me right. India does not have a Christopher Andrew to write on Statecraft and its liason with Espionage, Intteligence Gathering and Strategy. Having said that there have been a few books, Kao boys of the RAW, Mission RAW and the book under review, RAW A History of India's Covert Operations which plough lonely half hearted furrows in a field in which gossip exchanged over the diplomatic cocktail circuit passes off as "intel alerts" and popular press cuttings are palced in files bearing the label "Secret Confidential". And in this dismal situation any work on Indian Inteligence, covert, overt or secret is welcome and Yatish Yadav has written a competent work. However, he does not reveal much except some details about the infamous Rabindra Singh case.

Throughout the years of the Raj, the Intteligence Bureau or IB was the Agency responsible for both Internal and External espionage. At least by having one central agency, the rivalry between agencies and needless duplication of work was obviated. A development from the Thugee Department, the IB was quite successful in executing its mandate. It provided deep information on Tibet that fortified India's position in the Simla Conference of 1905, it successfully ran the Great Game with Russia, kept a vigil on the Wahabbis in the NorthWest Frontier and of course had pentrated deep into the Congress Movement, the Communist Movement and the Trade Union Movement. The reaon for its success was simple: Inteligence gathering had a clear political goal, the preservation of the Empire. With Independence, the Congress leadershipwhich neither had political vision nor the ability to shape a distinct civilizational goal for India after nearly thousand years of savagery, used the IB only to keep tabs on its internal opponents, the Communists, the family of Netaji Subash Bose, and sundry other such targets.  Nehru was blissfullu unaware of China's intention in both Tibet and Askai Chin. Indian Government was unaware of the deteriorating situation on the McMohan Line and the rest is History. The purpose of establishing the RAW, Research and Analysis Wing of the Cabinet Secretariat, was to provide actionable information to the Prime MInister on India's vital National Security Interests. With a budget hidden from Parlimantary scrutiny, with untramelled access to the top political leadership, the R&W was supposed to be the eyes and ears of India abroad. Instead as Yadav points out many of the R&W agents turned out to be double agents on the pay of the CIA, like Rabindra Singh, though perhaps not to the same abysmal level. 

Yatish Yadav is a patriot who does not explain or rationalize the momumental failure of Indan Inteligence. In fact he has done us a great fvour by bringing out the absolute amatuer nature of India's external operations.  He says that one counter inteligence operation which was handed over to the Ministry of External Affairs during the regime of V P Singh  in 1989 more than $ 100.000 dollars were spent and not one single sheet of policy recomendations came out of it (221).  This is not to say that there were no patriotic agents working for the R&W. The author shows that the R&W inspite of serious operational and logistic weakness was able to break the Khalistani Extremist Movement by penetrating into various front organizations in USA and Canada and provideing information that led Julio Reberio and K P S Gill successfully challenge and exterminate the threat at the source itself. But such successes were few and far between.

The R&W was called upon to deal with three major crises in India's external environment and unfortunately it failed in all three: Bangla Desh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. India helped Bangal Desh "liberate" itself from Pakistan. The political objective behind this policy was to create a friendly state surrounded by Indian territory so that Pakistan is weakened. paradoxically liberating Bangla Desh was a huge mistake as, with the benefit of hindsight we know now that political Islam is dominant and having cut off a revenue consuminf territory, India inadvertental strengthened Pakistan which was now free to stir trouble in India using the secular card, inflaming muslim passion against the kafir Hindus, promoting muslim identity politics and secession in Kashmir, India was not prepared for te coup that brought Mujib down on 15th August 1975, barely three years after so called Liberation. R&W was taken by surprise and Mujib, India's hopes were shattered and it has not been the same ever again. In fact India nas now the unwelcome task of weeding out Banlga Desh infiltrators who have spread all across India and are now a political issue after the CAA. The R&W did redeem itself somewhat by tracing an important fugitive who had fled to Calcutta and in an act of extra ordnary rendition had him smuggled back into Bangal Desh where the decades out death warrant was promptly executed.

In Sri Lanka, India was a total disaster and Yadav  recognizes that fact but is not able to see the deeper currents. India will never accept an independent Tamil State in Sri Lnaka and the spill over into the Indian territory will fuel violent identity politics. And if Independence cannot be accepted then why did R&W under Indira Gandhi train LTTE and TULF cadres to wage unconventional war against the State in Sri Lanka. The reason again is simple: To acquire some leverage against Sri Lanka when it was seen to become close to China. This sort of Big Power Game can be played by USA and Israel. India neither has the institutional nor intellectual strenght to play this game. And India failed miserably in Sri Lanka. Once again the political objective of sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force was not clear. Was it to maintain peace or to bring Prabhakaran and the LTTE to the negotiating table. Sri Lanka, on the other hand was able to use Pakistan and China effectively and in May 2009 was succeful in getting Israeli cooperation to track down the satellite phone which was used by the leaders. India withdrew from Sri Lanka and the killing of one of India's political leaders was the direct result of this failed experiment. R&W was uable to provide ground level intelligence to the indian Army and on one ocassion when it had located Prabhakaran and reported the matter toPMO for advice, the Indian Army was ordered not to kill Prabhakaran. A costly mistake.

The most serious issue before India from 1979 when the then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, was the question of India's role in that landlocked country. Though India was not happy with the invasion. it thought it prudent to keep quiet. And thus left the field open for the CIA. The Americans sent in some $ US 15 billion dollars in military aid to the country through Pakistan. And the high level of sectarian violence is the result of the American encouragement to jihad which culminated in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York city. Now as the Americans prepare to leave India does not have groups to support Indian interests there and the carnage of indigenus people in Afghanistan by ISIS groups (incidentally recruited from Malapuram, Kerala) demonstrates clearly that India has lost the game. The R&W has cultivated some assets in the Baluchi Moveent but it would have been better had Pakhtunistan Independence been encouraged as that would essentially weaken Pakistan considerably.

The book is an interesting read and anyone who wants to know abut Indian intelligence operations will rrofit by reading this book.

Sri Lanka, the Tamil Issue and the DMK: The theatre of the absurd

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books A wave of student unrest is spreading across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The students and youth are out on the streets protesting against the Sri Lankan Government and its alleged involvement in the civilian casualties during the tail end of the war in May 2009. I have elsewhere pointed out that India did not put pressure on Sri Lanka to minimize civilian casualties, probably keeping the LTTE and its horrendous record of ,mass killing in mind. The fact that is now forgotten is that the LTTE took 250,000 men, women and children hostage during the last days of the war and used this civilian population as a human shield. The DMK was in power in Tamil Nadu at that time and Karunanidhi did nothing except go on a farcical hunger strike that lasted just 15 minutes. His fast was called off within less than fifteen minutes and this itself shows that the old bandicoot is not serious about the Tamil cause. The issue now is the US sponsored resolution about alleged human rights violations by the Sri Lankan army. The DMK wants India to support this US backed resolution before the UNHRC. USA is a country that has destroyed Iraq, supported insurgents in Libya, arranged for the killing of Qadaffi, now arming the Syrian rebels to create lawlessness in Syria and with this track record no one can take US protestations on human rights seriously. However, human rights is a very good instrument by which great powers can intervene in the internal affairs of other copuntries. The US backed resolution is likely to be defeated as there is a great deal of opposition to the inclusion of internal security problems in an internationally binding resolution. India cannot afford to back a UN resolution calling for international inveerstigation in alleges war crimes comitted by Sri Lanka as Indian track recors in Kashmir and Nagaland is perhaps worse than that of the Sri Lankan Army. Therefore the criminal Congress dominated UPA under Man Mohan Sigh did what it does best: it spoke in contradictory voices. Chidambaram was dispatched to placate the old bandicoot and he said that Karunanidhis's concerns will be addressed. All the time the External Affairs Ministry knew that India cannot be party to a UN resolution which will set a precedent for India. Knowing full well that the mind of the UPA was made up,. Karunanidhi walked out of the UPA. His calculation is that by walking out, the sentiments of the people will be turned toward the DMK. This is unlikely as the DMK is perceived to be a corrupt and criminal party and the daughter of the old bandicoot himself is facing criminal charges stemming from her involvement in the 2G spectrum scandal. However, the UN resolution and the declining credibility of the DMK has led to a very serious problem. Sri Lankan citizens are being attacked everwhere. A few days back a Buddhist monk who had gone to the Big Temple, Tanjavur, was beaten up. Tamil pilgrims from the Planatations who were visiting the pilgrimage town of Vellankani were roughed up. Sri Lankan cricket players are being attacked and the office of the Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai is under threat. The UPA under Man Mohan Singh knowing full well that it cannot support the US resolution should have argued its case in a transparent manner which it did not do. The DMK is going to be wiped out in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls along with the Congress. The people of India have decided to give Hon'ble Narendar Modi a chance and so the BJP will win by default. The fact is that the Sri Lankan Army under General Fonseka did kill a large number of civilians incl;uding Balachader, the son of Prbhakaran. The video images are now being selectively being released and Channel IV seems to have an unlimited access to war footage. Of course dark deeds were done. But is the Government of Sri Lanka responsible for them under international Law. In conditions of war collateral damge do take place.

Sri Lanka After Vellupillai Prabhakaran

The military victory announced by the President of Sri Lanka over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam marks the end of 25 years of one of the most brutal and ruthless insurgent movements of the 20th century. Unfortunately many of the western powers such as UK, the EU, even USA before 9/11 identified the LTTE as a genuine liberation movement and extended both political and diplomatic support. The large Tamil diaspora spread out all over the world, in its shortsighted pursuit of identity politics supported the LTTE with money and material. It appears that it was the self serving Tamil diaspora spread out over Canada, England and Sweden that largely supported the organisation with aimed at complete control over the lives and destiny of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.
The LTTE founded by Vellupillai Prabhakaran in 1972 waged a brutal war of extreme violence against the Sri Lankan state. In its pursuit of ethnic cleansing of Northern Sri Lanka it brutally attacked the Buddhist/Sinhala polulation and terrorised the Muslim population to quit the Northen Jaffna Peninsula. The world condemned the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia ans Serbia but it did not bother to condemn what the Tigers did in the name of Tamil pride. The LTTE ruthlessly and brutally killed several key Tamil intellectuals and politicians so that the slot of Tamil leadership could be occupied by Prabhakaran. Throughout the 1980's and 1990's leaders of the PLOTE and EPRLF were systematically eliminated by LTTE assasins. In fact the LTTE pioneered the dubious tactic of suicide bombing long before it became stock in trade of Islamic militancy. The murder of the former president of Sri Lanka, Premadasa, the killing of Rajiv Gandhi and the attempted assassination of Chandhrika Kumaratunga were all carried out by suicide bombers. In addition politicians of every shade of moderate opinion both Tamil and Sinhala were killed by the LTTE. Laxman Kadirgaman, Gamini Dessanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali were just some of the politicians killed on the orders of Prabhakaran.
The LTTE could not have become such a major terrorist organisation without the overt and covert support of the Indian Government. In 1983, when Mrs Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India, the Government of India permitted the setting up of 16 training camps for the LTTE cardres in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M G Ramachandran even referred to the LTTE terrorists as tambis, or younger brothers. No wonder then that the LTTE took full advantage of the situation and openly carried weapons even in the streets of Chennai and there have been several instances of LTTE men clashing with their rivals. The famous shootout with Uma Masesvaran who was later killed by the LTTE is still recalled with horror. In 1985 a bomb placed by the LTTE in Chennai airport exploded killing 65 people. In spite of the repeated acts of violence carried out on Indian soil, the Government of India continued to support the LTTE.
In 1991 the LTTE carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in full public view using a human bomb, Dhanu. The LTTE justified the assassination of the former Prime Minister on the ground that he had sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Jaffna in order to implement the Indo-Sri Lankan accord. If this accord which formed the basis of the 17th amendment to the Sri Lakan Constitution had been implemented the Tamil problem would have been solved as the Sinhalese for the first time agreed to the devolution of powers to the Tamil provinces of the North and the East. The LTTE did not want peace and set about killing Indian soldiers and more than 2,500 Indian soldiers lost their lives in that costly misadventure. Alienating India was a costly mistake as the Sri Lankan government quickly converted the disquiet that India felt into indifference to what was happening in Sri Lanka.
The defeat of the LTTE makes the job of the Sri Linkman government all the more difficult as it must now work very hard to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil population. The President has made a noble beginning by saying that all Sri Lankans will be treated with dignity and equality in an inclusive state. The death of Prabhakaran has opened up a window of opportunity in Sri Lanka and the Government must act.
The last few days the saw widespread suffering in the war dfront as the LTTE held the civillian population as a human shield. Rajapakshe went ahead with his task of crushing the LTTE and in so doing the cost in human terms was huge and so a good beginning has to be made to win over the Tamil population and the distinct lack of triumphalism in Rajapakshe's speech in Parliament today is a sign of statemenship