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| Intelligence sleuths play ‘funny’ role | | Govt. cautioned against secret services’ exposure | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, SEPT. 7: A former senior functionary of the Cabinet Secretariat has cautioned the government of India against the ‘dangers’ inherent in the far-from-calculated exercise to make higher-ups of India’s secret service organizations openly interact with certain categories of political and separatist elements. It is an open secret that the Cabinet Secretariat has administrative and operational control over the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
The Prime Minister has RAW, India’s premier intelligence organization, as one of the departments under his control. Hence, all the more reason for the retired official of the RAW to caution the Cabinet Secretary, to begin with, against what has been termed as the ‘unfortunate move’ leading to open interaction by some top functionaries of the intelligence community with “controversial” men on the political scene for the past some time.
Former RAW official has, in fact, found fault with the exercise, which seems to have given unbridled freedom to some intelligence officers to ignore ‘secrecy-for-the-sake-of-secrecy’ guideline already provided for the men of the intelligence community. The official, in his assessment note, has warned that the country’s intelligence community as a whole would suffer in the ultimate analysis if government sought to engage certain functionaries from the community in such activities that can result in their exposure in the public.
The note is said to contain several instances with regard to far-from-satisfactory operational role of a set of officials belonging to the RAW, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and BSF’s intelligence organization, better known as BSF (G), in certain parts of the north-eastern region and Jammu and Kashmir. Former RAW official is also learnt to have noted that some seniors from these agencies have, in recent times, chosen to act in the national capital, too.
They seem to be unmindful of the basic requirement for the average intelligence sleuth to go about and operate without being detected by the average citizen. Former official of the RAW has a bit of advice: Intelligence ‘chap’ is required to know and learn the art of politics and the game of politicking as the people he is to deal with in his area of operation generally indulge in politicking of sorts. And while mixing up with people outside the intelligence community the intelligence ‘chap’ cannot afford to get exposed or become debatable.
His note has also made adverse comments on the ‘funny’ role being played by certain senior members of the IB and the BSF (G) in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat and north-eastern region. Some instances of the alleged misuse of ‘secret fund’ in these States are also said to have found place in the note.
Following the mysterious flight from India of Rabinder Singh, former joint secretary of the RAW, to the US not long ago, Prime Minister’s trusted man, MK Narayanan, who is National Security Advisor, who was mandated by Manmohan Singh to conduct an in-depth study of the matter, recommended filing of a criminal case against the absconding officer. Narayanan made several other recommendations. One of them favoured reverting to the earlier practice of the Cabinet Secretary having a supervisory role over the RAW. |
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