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R A W
BY: Prem Raj
INTRODUCTION
This ugly looking hand of the RAW, with two broken fingers wrapped
in rags, making "v'' to indicate violence is a logo reflecting
its 'mens rea'. The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is the most authoritative
external intelligence agency, which has become instrumental in India's
National power. After going through its format since its inception the
RAW is groomed to show off, blended to bluff and extremely gaudy in
its style. It draws pleasure in gimmicking on other agencies working
in the field of intelligence in India. It goes all out to score a point
just to become the heart favourite of the persons who are at the helm
of an affair. The episode of recorded tapes pertaining to the conversation
took place between Army Chief, Gen Musharraf & his then Chief Of
Staff, Lt Gen Muhammad Aziz during the Kargil conflict and later on
handing over of tapes to the Premier of Pakistan is a self gibe for
the RAW. The lust for money makes the spies run & that sees no bounds
for the rank of a Brigadier serving RAW to crash on sweets. It tries
its best to surface like the James Bond 007, while wearing his shoes
to look flamboyant but becomes oafish.
ABSTRACT
India established this special branch of intelligence in 1968, specifically
targeting Pakistan. The Research and Analysis Wing sponsored sabotage
in Punjab and supported the Seraiki movement by providing financial
support to promote its activities in Pakistan & organized an International
Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November - December 1993. RAW has as
many as 35,000 agents which had entered Pakistan between 1983-1993,
with 12,000 working in Sind, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier
Province & 5,000 in Balochistan. As many as 40 terrorist training
camps are run by the RAW's Special Services Bureau at Rajasthan, East
Punjab, Held Kashmir, Uttar Pardesh & other parts of India.
During the Afghan War, RAW with the help of KGB conducted terrorist
attacks in Pakistan to show its loyalties towards Russia. It is learnt
that India has established a training camp in the town of Qadian, in
East Punjab, where non Muslim Pakistanis are trained for terrorist activities.
Sectarian violence between Shias & Sunnis which has resulted in
thousands of deaths every year in Pakistan is the outcome of RAW.
Though the recorded report is of 11years old but yet it reflects the
character of the RAW Organisation.Clandestine activities of RAW while
joining hands in glove with the Afghan intelligence has the following
to its credit:-
" A car bomb explosion in Saddar area of Peshawar on 21st Dec1995
caused the deaths of 37 persons & injured over 50 others.
" An explosion at Shaukat Khanum Hospital on 14th April 1996 claimed
7 lives & injured over 34 others.
" A bus traveling Lahore to Sahiwal was blown up at Bhai Pheru
on 28 April 1996, causing the deaths of 44 persons on the spot and injuring
30 others.
" An explosion in a bus near Sheikhupura Hospital killed 9 persons
& injured 29 others on 8th May 1996.
" An explosion near Alam Chowk, Gujranwala on 10th June 1996, killed
3 persons & injured 11 others.
" A bomb exploded in a bus on GT Road Kharian on 10th June 1996,
killing 2 persons & injuring 10 others.
" On 27th June 1996, an explosion opposite Madrassah Faizul Islam,
Faizabad, Rawalpindi, killed 5 persons & injured 50 others.
" A bomb explosion in Faisalabad Railway Station passenger lounge
on 8th Jul 1996 killed 3 persons & injured 20 others.
RAW had executed a hijacking drama of its own Indian Airliner to Lahore
in 1971, which was attributed to the Kashmiris' freedom fighters, while
giving it a cosmetic effect of terrorism to sabotage the movement which
failed miserably. Thus RAW ultimately was compelled to leak out its
own plan of hijacking to bag the credit but every one turned deaf ears
to its voice because the same had given a new energy & a fresh air
to the Kashmir liberation movement. The RAW lacks the intelligence acumen.
RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both secular
& the areas of Hindu minority. RAW activated itself in East Pakistan
is said to date from the 1960's, when RAW made an aim to dismember Pakistan.
RAW took the responsibility of funding Mujibur Rehmans' general elections
in 1970 & providing training & arming the Mukti Bahnis.
According to Jain Commission which received testimony on the official
Indian support to the various Sri Lankan Tamil armed groups in Tamil
Nadu. Since 1981, RAW & the Intelligence Bureau established a net
work of as many as 30 training bases for these groups in India. Centers
were also established at the high security military installations of
Chakrata, near Dehra Dun & in the Ramakrishna Puram near New Delhi.
This clandestine support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE),
some of whom were already on the pay roll of RAW. Even Rajiv Gandhi
had sought good relations with the LTTE.
RAW in Nepal has successfully demolished the nine thousand years old
traditional religious, cultural and spiritual brick lining of palace,
by inducting a bug in the shape of Miss Devyani Rana who with the full
support of RAW had made a massacre of nine members of the Royal family
of Nepal. Having done all this RAW inducted Maoists rebellious groups
to shatter the peace of Nepal to take full advantage of the disturbed
situation. A weak Nepal is a strength for India, has been a philosophy
of RAW.
RAW in Bhutan & Tibet also has played a vital role of tying down
the small states in to shackles. They look to be always at the mercy
of India; hence window opening to the world outside has been shut on
them. There is lot of suffocation in the ranks & file of people.
For how long the voice of people could be suppressed & cries to
be submerged. So that day is not far off when the volcano will erupt
& choose its own course of destruction, moving in the direction
of India.
ON OTHER SIDE OF THE COAST
While studying analytically the South Asia looks to be bleeding, where
the sufferings have been caused, the pain induced and the peace chewed
by the RAW an indiscreet baby of India. But having full sympathy for
India who seems to be loser all along is continuously breeding enemies
on the South Asian platform. Having extremely precarious state of affairs
on its own land where class discrimination reads "sky is the limit",
poverty touches the bottom of its line & the acidic wind blown on
other lands is changing its direction. But this all has been cultivated
by RAW which brings a shame to the country.
" Blasts in Pakistan casting innocent lives could not deter Russia
to flee.
" Terrorists Camps could be a heavy monitory load on India but
it can not challenge the determination of Pakistan.
" Air India hijacking drama gave new life to the Kashmiri Liberation
Movement, so RAW failed miserably to turn the tide.
" Long stretched territorial Pakistan was a blessing for India
but now in the end it has two strong, compact traditional enemies in
the shape of Pakistan & Bangladesh.
" Sri Lanka has unveiled her enemy & found where the LTTEs'
roots lead to.
" Rajiv Gandhi was murdered due to the RAWs' scheme of foolishness.
" Indra Gandhi was killed by her own guard & this agency of
RAW could not save her mistress.
" The struggle movement of Kashmiris for liberation has furthered
in the recent years.
" Mujibur Rehman of Bangladesh, won the elections on the wealth
of RAW but could not last more to compliment his pay master.
" There are strong feelings growing against India in Nepal, Bhutan
& Tibet which is almost turning in to volcano but the people are
compelled due to the land-locked geographical scenario.
" The Maoists, the LTTEs & Minorities fed by RAW are now turning
to attack in India.
" The seeds of sectarianism sowed by the RAW in other countries
are now emerging as crops in India.
FUNDS BEYOND MEASURE
The RAW has immeasurable, unaccountable funds at its disposal. There
are speculations that annually it is provided with Rs. 1500 crores (alternately
estimated as $ 145 million) as "discretionary grant" for foreign
influence operations. There is no check & balance of the funds given
to RAW which is the hard earned money of the tax payers, nor it is known
for what purpose it is being utililized. In 1996, an Indian diplomat
was implicated in a scandal over illegal funding of political candidates
in the U.S.A. The U.S. District Court in Baltimore sentenced Lalit H
Gadhia, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Indian origin, to three months
imprisonment. Over $ 46,000 from the Indian Embassy was distributed
among 20 Congressional candidates of America.
Major General Retired V.K. Singh, in his recent book, namely "India's
External Intelligence" has given a frank & truthful account
about the inside functioning of RAW. Though the author is facing the
worst opposition in his country but all along it is a painful voice
of a man who feels hurt on the dishonest reporting and misappropriation
of funds by the RAW. As he writes in the same book "A year after
joining RAW, I realized there were a lot of things that was wrong in
its functioning. A lot of public money was being wasted without any
accounting or accountability. A particular German company was favoured
to purchase antenna for Rs. 12 Lakh when we could have bought the same
thing for Rs. 15,000. Such is the mess that we are in."
The Special Protection Group employed on the personal security of the
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, committed a major security breech
by opting to purchase a communications system whose encryption device
was developed by an American Company. This for sure in other words,
was allowing the foreign intelligence agencies, including CIA &
Pakistan's ISI, to eavesdrop on the network and know the exact details
of the Prime Minister's movement. The job of foreign company is to provide
the Radio Systems & other accessories but not the whole component.
The option to purchase the same system which was of worth Rs. 26.2 crore
was cancelled due to the hue & cry but later on with some modifications
the RAW had to buy the equipment from the same company which stood so
influential. This only speaks of the voluminous stories of kick backs
to buy a particular sensitive system for Special Protection Group, for
which RAW was made responsible to evaluate and recommend the best communication
system.
Maj. Gen Retired V.K. Singh, an ex RAW officer who writes in his book
titled as "India's External Intelligence" that how a senior
officer spent lakhs of rupees on designing a logo for the agency. Equally
shocking is the case of an officer who funded his daughter's education
from the secret funds given to RAW.
A NEW DAWN FOR ASMA JEHANGIR
Asma Jehangir a chairperson of Human Rights Commission Of Pakistan
has passed a
major portion of her life in praising India for her democracy, secularity
& freedom of thought process. She almost fell in love with India
& her past speeches stood mimicking at her when the RAW agents barged
in to her room of hotel in South Delhi where she had just checked in
to take part in the seminar commissioned to address the human rights
violations. All the members from Pakistan were humiliated & mistreated
by the vagabonds of RAW. She always treated Pakistan as her step mother
& endorsed India as her first home. She never bothered to the formation
of negative opinion back home in Pakistan, while giving an open hug
to the Indian Parliamentarians. Thanks to RAW who has given a new dawn
to Asma Jehangir & demonstrated a true face of India to her, other
wise never ever she would have been convinced to alter her views. With
RAW, it is a proven maxim, "love begets love'' is a false theory.
TAPES TURNING THE TIDE
The RAW & the allied agencies failed miserably to detect the infiltration
of freedom fighters to occupy the Kargil heights but succeeded in recording
the conversation which took place between the Pakistan Army Chief &
his Chief Of Staff. As earlier it has been mentioned the RAW is blessed
with an instinct to propagate her actions thus could not control her
passions, the tapes on the night of June 3rd 1999, a vital evidence
was being carried by Vivek Katju, an MEA hand, along with the influential
R.K.Mishra of the Reliance - funded Observer Research Foundation in
the flight of Pakistan International Airlines, to Islamabad, to deliver
it to the Prime Minister of Pakistan with the sole object of making
a wedge between the Prime Minister & the Army Chief of Pakistan.
But was the decision to dispatch the tapes to Nawaz Sharif a wise move?
Now for the first time an insider from RAW says it was not. Major
General V.K. Singh, who served in RAW in its technical wing between
the year 2000 and 2004, revealed "you never ever disclose your
source in the intelligence game. Once that was done when the tapes were
handed over, the source dried up and we did not get any intelligence
from this sector for the next two years. In my opinion, this was a violation
of the basic principles of intelligence gathering".
SPIES ON THE RUN
There are many examples where the agents serving at key posts in RAW
has shown betrayal and did not prove their salt worth, it was primarily
due to the dishonest stuff who worked for the CIA when drawing pay from
the RAW. The senior officers of RAW having pressed the precious documents
under their arm pits, ran to America and Britain, in pursuit of money
& a green card like a labourer having lust for the same.
For the first time RAW has confessed that eight of its key operatives
have gone missing, almost all while on critical assignments outside
the country. Since the agency's creation in the late 60's, Rabinder
Singh is the ninth such known man on the defector's list.
Take the case of Brig Ujjal Dasgupta, director, computers, who returned
from the U.S. on 14th June 2006, after searching his office & interrogating
him for over a month, IB officials arrested him on July 19. He is alleged
to have passed on sensitive information to Rosanna Minchew, a U.S. embassy
staff, working for the CIA. Dasgupta and Minchew were members of the
Indo-U.S. Cyber Security Forum, set up to deal with cyber - terrorism
& information security. He is presently in Tihar jail waiting for
his trial to occur. Prominent among the names is Sikadar Lal Malik,
personal assistant of RAW founder and super spy, Ramnath Kao. Malik
disappeared one fine morning, on a U.S. posting and is presumed to be
living in America. Malik's defection to U.S. was a great blow to the
agency.
The defection of Rabinder Singh, a joint secretary with RAW looking
after the South East Asia, desk came as a shock to agency. The activities
of Rabinder Singh, a suspected CIA mole who later defected to U.S.,
had already been brought to the notice of his superiors but no one bothered
to monitor him.
CLASS DISCRIMINATION
And the advertisement read, "Muslims & Sikhs Need Not Apply"
for the service in the intelligence agency which certainly is a biased
stand to declare them untrustworthy. Where as Pakistan on the other
hand has given a fair chance to Sikh community to apply for getting
commission in the Armed Forces.
A noted educationist & former parliamentarian Humayun Kabir a prominent
Bengali politician who did not subscribe to the idea of Muslim League's
vision of Pakistan, chose to stay in secular state of India & rose
to the status of secretary education. Little did Kabir know that nearly
after sixty years his grand son would be refused to serve in RAW, on
the sole bases of being Muslim. It is an unwritten code that no Muslim
could be inducted in RAW. RAW's current strength of staff is even exceeding
10,000, it has yet to include a single officer from the Muslim's community
& the policy is being practiced since 1969. Neither the National
Technical Research Organization (NTRO), a crucial arm of the external
intelligence has recruited a Muslim to serve the set up.
It is also an unwritten rule that the so called secular democracy of
India, does not deploy Muslims or Sikhs to protect VVIP's because Muslims
always remained under suspicion & the Sikhs got blackmailed after
Indira's assassination. As no state organization can restrict a particular
community to be kept off from the specific duties thus the same has
caused a sense of discrimination, feelings of insecurity & an idea
that a secular state means, a state which belongs to Hindus, alone.
ISI OF PAKISTAN
As compared to RAW, the ISI of Pakistan is blessed with the spirited,
devoted & professionals men of integrity who are beholden of honour,
respect and grandeur. They carry out their assigned mission in a dignified
manner & want to see the Asia without violence and free of terrorism.
To explore peace, tranquillity & ataraxia, for the people of Asia
especially and the world allover they remain dedicated to this very
theme.
They do not exhibit cheap actions of film or the novel to grab popularity
just to impress others. They always utilize money of its organization
under the obligation of a trust bestowed upon them. These very much
can be symbolized like a cherry flower which is odourless, hence their
actions also remain invisible, it is colourless, so they also lack projection
even conducting a marvelous job for the country, but the beauty of the
cherry flowers is these come together & fall together so is the
concept prevailing in ISI of Pakistan.
And writes Maj. Gen (Retired ) V. K. Singh, in his recent book, "As
charges and counter charges fly thick and fast, one thing is clear,
that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence has completely outshone
the Indian political-military intelligence set up in a meticulously
planned and executed military operation of Kargil."
Men of ISI who display their art of operation selflessly, no one can
sabotage their aim of love, peace & humanity.
CONCLUSION
RAW must look in to the blunders it committed like discriminating act
of creating a big hiatus with in the communities of India who have an
equal right to guard the frontiers within & outside the country.
Tax payer of India has a right to know how his hard earned money is
being spent and for what purpose. The RAW should have the capacity to
absorb other intelligence agencies as well and must not run for its
recognition of work to draw extra benefits, as that would be an act
unbecoming. It must not experience, on other soils, to blow up innocent
lives and ignite the fire to burn them living, so rest assure when the
wind changes its direction and an inferno heads for India to cast a
heavy loss then the wind would not read the signals, the RAW you display.
Email: premlaliguras@hotmail.com
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