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.
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