Don’t allow daylight between R&AW, IB, MEA - Indian Punchline
It’s about time the government took the public into confidence about what has been the Devyani Khobragade affair really, really about. Jayanth Jacob’s delightful story on HT’s front page today marks a milestone. Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with the link to the story, because the daily hasn’t put it on its webpage. (PS. Yes, I found the link.)
I can sense that the wheels within the wheel are beginning to turn within the Indian establishment. The heart of the matter is that the Americans have created a huge embarrassment for MEA and the Indian Foreign Service has been ridiculed to no end. Even senior editors have jumped into the fray. However, MEA has kept its head cool.
The point is, behind the dustcover of the Devyani case, the CIA sting operation as such remains sequestered from public view. In fact, Devyani getting any reprieve is directly linked to the CIA getting a reasonable assurance that Delhi won’t insist on the maid’s repatriation from the US.
The chilling reality is that if the Intelligence Bureau sleuths get to interrogate the maid, she will begin to sing in no time, and her songs will expose the CIA case officer in the embassy in Chanakyapuri, her handler in New York, and most important, why and how she became such a terribly sensitive “asset’ for the CIA in the Indian compound in New York where our diplomats live.
Therefore, R&AW, IB and the MEA are all directly involved in deciding the Devyani case. The MEA’s priority will be to get Devyani out of the litigation in the US (which was provoked by the litigation in Delhi High Court that she initiated, in turn, at the instance of the MEA and the security agencies once our counter-intelligence began smelling a rat and needed to get hold of the maid.)
Now, this is the third time that in the recent years CIA has humbled the R&AW and IB. The first was the case of Rabinder Singh’s flight to the US via Kathmandu right from under our nose after having been a CIA mole within R&AW for God knows how long; the second was the escape of the charming American lady-diplomat who was siphoning off documents from our chap Saini in the National Security Council.
In both these previous cases, there was political interference not to raise ‘punka’ with the US, since the UPA government was working shoulder to shoulder with Washington on the nuclear deal, et al, and didn’t want the atmosphere to be ‘vitiated’.
Painfully enough, the CIA was allowed to get away scot free in both these cases when the portfolio of NSA was held by no one other than M. K. Narayanan, who was himself a former IB chief.
To be sure, the American embassy has big clout in Delhi and Mumbai and their lobbyists in turn often control our political elites. But history should not repeat. We need to curb the CIA activities in our country at some point. India has an old history of foreign conquests. Suffice to say, the MEA’s interests are national interests, and so are R&AW’s and IB’s, and there should be no daylight between them and amongst them — and no daylight should be allowed to appear amongst them in this affair.
Posted in Diplomacy, Politics.
Tagged with Devyani Khobragade, Rabinder Singh.
By M K Bhadrakumar – December 25, 2013
It’s about time the government took the public into confidence about what has been the Devyani Khobragade affair really, really about. Jayanth Jacob’s delightful story on HT’s front page today marks a milestone. Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with the link to the story, because the daily hasn’t put it on its webpage. (PS. Yes, I found the link.)
I can sense that the wheels within the wheel are beginning to turn within the Indian establishment. The heart of the matter is that the Americans have created a huge embarrassment for MEA and the Indian Foreign Service has been ridiculed to no end. Even senior editors have jumped into the fray. However, MEA has kept its head cool.
The point is, behind the dustcover of the Devyani case, the CIA sting operation as such remains sequestered from public view. In fact, Devyani getting any reprieve is directly linked to the CIA getting a reasonable assurance that Delhi won’t insist on the maid’s repatriation from the US.
The chilling reality is that if the Intelligence Bureau sleuths get to interrogate the maid, she will begin to sing in no time, and her songs will expose the CIA case officer in the embassy in Chanakyapuri, her handler in New York, and most important, why and how she became such a terribly sensitive “asset’ for the CIA in the Indian compound in New York where our diplomats live.
Therefore, R&AW, IB and the MEA are all directly involved in deciding the Devyani case. The MEA’s priority will be to get Devyani out of the litigation in the US (which was provoked by the litigation in Delhi High Court that she initiated, in turn, at the instance of the MEA and the security agencies once our counter-intelligence began smelling a rat and needed to get hold of the maid.)
Now, this is the third time that in the recent years CIA has humbled the R&AW and IB. The first was the case of Rabinder Singh’s flight to the US via Kathmandu right from under our nose after having been a CIA mole within R&AW for God knows how long; the second was the escape of the charming American lady-diplomat who was siphoning off documents from our chap Saini in the National Security Council.
In both these previous cases, there was political interference not to raise ‘punka’ with the US, since the UPA government was working shoulder to shoulder with Washington on the nuclear deal, et al, and didn’t want the atmosphere to be ‘vitiated’.
Painfully enough, the CIA was allowed to get away scot free in both these cases when the portfolio of NSA was held by no one other than M. K. Narayanan, who was himself a former IB chief.
To be sure, the American embassy has big clout in Delhi and Mumbai and their lobbyists in turn often control our political elites. But history should not repeat. We need to curb the CIA activities in our country at some point. India has an old history of foreign conquests. Suffice to say, the MEA’s interests are national interests, and so are R&AW’s and IB’s, and there should be no daylight between them and amongst them — and no daylight should be allowed to appear amongst them in this affair.
Posted in Diplomacy, Politics.
Tagged with Devyani Khobragade, Rabinder Singh.
By M K Bhadrakumar – December 25, 2013
