Open Secrets: The Explosive Memoirs of an Indian Intelligence Officer (73 page)

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Enlightening the IB officers in the subsidiary units and in Delhi.

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Generation of assets in the target organisations.

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Convincing the governments of the day in Delhi and the States that there is a need for generating intelligence on this front and adopting administrative measures to contain the sinister thrust from Pakistan.

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The enlightened and secular Muslims should be enlisted to decontaminate the extremist fringe.

The government responded tardily. But I took upon myself the ‘mission’ of convincing my colleagues in the IB and state intelligence. I found it a daunting and unpleasant task. I must have had annoyed my colleagues and compelled them to squirm their facial muscles at my back by repeated visits and delivering vexing sermons. My colleagues, I must admit, did not dishearten me, though they were slow to react and respond. However, they came out of slumber after the Bombay serial bomb blast. The incident was a loud announcement by the ISI that it had mastered the techniques to take the ‘proxy war’ and
mujahideen
thrusts deep inside India’s heartland.

I did not find difficulty in communicating with the State governments in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. States like West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh did not entertain my overtures with kindness. The Left Front government was still suffering from the hangover of honeymoon with the minority vote bank. Similar were the cases with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Some individual officers cooperated on the service network, which was not sufficient to combat the threat. On a particular occasion the Left Front government refused permission to arrest a few suspected youths trained in Bangladesh camps.

In Bihar I received a rebuff from the reigning chief minister who debunked me as a Hindu communalist. For this new incarnation of caste politics any legal action against his captive vote bank was sacrilegious. He is one of those modern holy persons of India who does not hesitate to sacrifice democracy and constitutional liberalism to the altar of political expediency.

The story was not different in Uttar Pradesh. A similar caste baron stood firmly on the way of law simply for protecting his vote bank. A brother of a top political leader had stormed into a police station to ‘free’ a suspect trained in Pakistan. The vote bank compulsions had overshadowed the national security concerns. Their concept of secularism had become synonymous with placating and protecting known saboteurs and trained agents of the ISI. They had created an ‘apartheid wall’ around the minority community. Had they allowed the Intelligence Bureau and the State Intelligence Branches to penetrate the ‘Islamist modules’ way back in 1991-92 India would have achieved an early edge over the ISI. We lost at least a decade beating around the bushes of ‘secularism’, ‘democracy’ and non-existent constitutional and legal constraints.

As there was no specified intelligence generation unit on this front the PCIU took up the responsibility and stretched its existing resources to penetrate the secreted cells of sabotage and subversion. Specific steps were taken to tap certain elements which hovered over the edges of ‘Islamic militant groups’, fountain organisations like the All India Milli Council, Jammat-e-Islami and a few Institution of Islamic studies.

As an officer of the IB, which is predominantly staffed by Hindu operatives I found myself in more disadvantageous position than a Mossad agent finds in infiltrating the Palestinian hubs of terrorism. To my astonishment I discovered that though the Brahmin priests had virtually lost their legendary iron grip on the Hindu folks the Muslim Imams had not only retained but also substantially increased their grips of the followers of the Allah. A Hindu could go to any temple at will and offer his prayers to a God/Goddess of his choice. Social changes had liberated him from the shackles of being lead to his prayers by a covenanted Brahmin. The Hindu priest still enjoyed the rights of forwarding (Utsarg) the offerings of the faithful to their gods in accompaniment of prescribed mantras. But there was no rigid rule that compelled a Hindu to approach his God through a priest.

No doubt the Brahmins were still required to chant the mantras in a specific language understood, perhaps, by them and the Gods alone. But he had ceased to be the shepherd of the community. In fact, over the centuries Hindu religion had become more personalised and more secular in nature, devoid of hatred to other religions.

On the other hand the Imam invariably lead his folks to the prayers and his ‘appointed
darogas
’ (enforcers) maintained a vigil on the community to ensure that the faithful folks of the Allah invariably offered their prayers in the area mosque nearest to his habitat. The Imam acted as an arbitrator on personal law matters and dispensed justice based on prescription of the Shariat and Hadis. They dispensed justice on minor local disputes.

I was intrigued by the refusal of my friend, a Muslim professor of Delhi University to lodge a complaint with the police against his servant, another Muslim, who had stolen a two-in-one music system of his master. After a heated debate that I should be allowed to call in the police my scholar friend told me that the servant was in touch of the ‘
daroga
’ of the mosque, where both he and his servant attended prayers. The servant had threatened him to lodge a complaint with the Imam on two counts: the professor did not say his daily quota of 5 namaj and did not scrupulously observe the Ramadan fasts. Such a complaint, I was told, could invite a hefty fine and degradation by the Imam before the entire community. It was a revelation to me. However, I used my policeman’s identity and forced the servant to return the music system.

The mosques and madrasas strictly controlled the life styles of the faithful. In addition to the Imams the various alems attached to the madrasas too ensured that the faithful did not venture out of the strict bondages of Quranic prescriptions. A Muslim generally lived in a close society. He and his social and religious institutions had closed the doors and windows on other communities.

I knew I faced a very difficult task. But, I was not very unfortunate in my major venture of penetrating the community for generation of security related intelligence. Major help came from a few ‘concerned’ Muslim leaders whose views on Pakistan and Pan Islamic and fundamentalist activities were clearer than a Hindu had about his homeland. Some of them understood very well that basically the Urdu speaking Muslim leaders of central India, Bihar, Bengal, Maharashtra had pioneered the Muslim League movement and the ‘two nation’ theory. They had migrated to their ‘promised land’ and lost out the political battle and economic edges to the Punjabis, Pakhtuns and Sindhis. They had no business to interfere in the lives of the Indian Muslims who had accepted India as their political, social and economic home. I was impressed by their egalitarian attitude and exploited their concerns to infiltrate vital areas of the community.

Some steps were taken to plant a few Muslims
Talibs
(students) in a couple of key madrasas and a few boys were motivated to join the organisations that fronted the jihadists. Results came in trickles. Nonetheless, a good beginning was made.

The Muslims dominated certain criminal groups and organised mafia bands. They were active everywhere, in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. I did not have to discover that the criminals and mafia members followed a greater religion: the religion of Money. Crime and motive of gain united them more than the concept of secularism did. Even after the Bombay serial bomb blasts, in which the ISI tapped the underworld dons, the mafia members, largely maintained their clan solidarity. They were not irreparably divided on communal lines. I was helped by certain gang members in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Patna and Calcutta to penetrate the jihadist periphery of the ISI’s sinister thrust among the vulnerable sections of the Indian Muslims. Though Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan had fallen out and gunned for each others blood I had no difficulty to obtain cooperation of both Muslim and Hindu underworld; especially in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

This was not a bad beginning. But I was dismayed by the progress made by the subsidiary units. They were not yet convinced by my frenetic urgings that Islamic militancy and jihadist movements were just another phase of the proxy war and international jihadist movement spearheaded by the ISI and Al Qaeda. Some senior colleagues laughed in front of their cuffs, not behind. Other colleagues virtually lambasted me when I tried to explain to them the involvement of Al Qaeda trained terrorists in Kashmir and increased collaboration between Osama’s outfit and the ISI. One of them had called me a schizophrenic. Perhaps I was a little ahead of my time.

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V. G. Vaidya, Director IB was not averse to taking risk in planning the roadmap for ‘pro-active’ thrusts against Pakistan. I was allowed to carry out limited operations inside Pakistan. These special projects had penetrated targets in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar. The period between August 1992 and October 1993 was highly productive. The operations were designed to obtain clinching proof of involvement of the ISI with certain Pakistan based Jihadist organisations, which were involved in Afghan war and were being diverted to India. One of the talents had succeeded in undergoing training in one of the East Afghanistan camps established jointly by the ISI and the Al Qaeda.

Constraints of legality restrain me from disclosing some of these operations. However, these pro-active operations were winded up after October 1993, perhaps under pressure from a sister organisation and pressures from the External Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office. The political and intelligence infrastructure of the country was simply not ready to hit Pakistan along its own fault lines. They readily offered Pakistan all the opportunities to exploit the Indian fault lines. It was a frustrating experience. But I had to concede ground, as it was a matter of turf war and elusive diplomatic protocol. I was already earmarked as a rogue intelligence officer and I did not aspire to earn the ire of the top bosses of the MEA and Cabinet Secretariat.

Officially my turf was limited to a small patch of grazing ground. I had trampled on too many toes by adopting a ‘pro-active’ agenda for the counter-intelligence cell that I headed. I believe certain leading figures of the Track II diplomacy and certain officials of the R&AW had restrained the hands of the PMO. Vaidya gave me the go-slow signal and I had to obey him. Perhaps, that was the end of ‘pro-active’ intelligence activities, at least by the Intelligence Bureau. I am not aware if the new
avtar
(incarnation) of ‘pro-active’ policy, L. K. Advani had given clearance to his machineries to exploit the fault lines of Pakistan. I have a feeling he had not.

A CHAPTER OF NATIONAL SHAME

Doctrines get inside of a man’s own reason and betray him against himself. Civilised men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines.

William Graham Sumner.

It is time I take the readers to the biggest political eruption that was transmitting tremors since the later parts of 1988. The Sangh Parivar, as I said earlier, had adopted the agenda of exploiting the political vacuum caused by the death of Indira Gandhi and inept handling of the affairs of the nation by Rajiv and his rebellious deputy V. P. Singh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had, for the first time, adopted a resolution on Babri Masjid (mosque allegedly constructed under orders of
Babu
r, the first of the Great Mughals) in its June 1989 national executive session in Himachal Pradesh. Babri Masjid became a new totem of faith, as it was allegedly constructed on the ruins of the janmasthan (birthplace) of Lord Rama, the legendary incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of the holy Hindu Trinity.

The Hindu card had paid high dividends in 1991 Parliament elections. Thereafter the Sangh Parivar and its fronts like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal etc swelled up the momentum initiated up by L. K. Advani’s ‘
rath yatra
’ and subsequent communal upheavals. The climax was reached when about 50
kar sevaks
(volunteer workers) were killed in police action under orders of the chief minister Myalyam Singh Yadav. The Indira Congress government headed by Narasimha Rao failed to arrest the trend and to bring the feuding parties on the negotiation table. His dark horse emissaries like Chandra Swami, Satish Sharma and Arjun Singh failed to divide the Hindu solidarity. They did not succeed either in making the militant fringe of the Muslims to strike some compromising notes. Some critics of the PM often described him as ‘khaki knickers turned Congressman’, linking his past association with the RSS.

I was out of the Ram Janambhoomi imbroglio, though I was in constant touch with my friends in the RSS and the BJP. My involvement with Pakistan operations failed to dampen my appetite for national politics.

Around November 12 a friend in the Congress party approached me with two requests: arrange his meeting with the Imam of Jama Masjid, and arrange a meeting between the Prime Minister and the Sar Sangh Chalak, supreme leader of the RSS. The meeting between my friend and the Imam was not a big deal. This was arranged in the private quarters of the Imam. They discussed, in my presence, the possibility of restraining the pro-active Muslim leaders. It was a good cause and I encouraged my friend to keep touch with a couple of Muslim friends from the Muslim Personal Law Board and Milli Council.

But I hesitated to open my cards on the RSS front. Moreover, I had no access to the top man of the Sangh. The Prime Minister, I was aware, had used other channels to explore the possibility of meeting late Rajju Bhaiya, the Sar Sangh Chalak. On one occasion he had offered a plum post to an officer of the Indian Police Service on account of his family relationship with Ashok Singhal, the top VHP leader.

My hesitation prompted my friend to drag me to the PM. In the dim lit room I found that the Prime Minister was seated in a dejected posture with a frustrating pout on his mouth. A chronic diabetic and a heart patient, Narasimha Rao gave an impression that he was a temporary trader, eager to sell out his wares and go home before the sundown. I did not find any determination on his face and resolve in his eyes. All that his eyes emitted was uncertainty and untrustworthiness. In monosyllabic words he asked me to arrange a discreet meeting between him and the RSS supremo. I conveyed that the RSS supremo was beyond my reach, but I could possible arrange his meeting with another top functionary. It sounded more like an order, which I was not bound to obey. But I was aware of the peril that would have followed if I had not.

I exploited a non-RSS and non-BJP friend to pick up the RSS supremo from his Keshav Kunj abode and drop him at a point where my Congress friend waited for his prize guest. Later I found out that the meeting between the consummate RSS leader and the Prime Minister did go very well.The Prime Minister, I was told, had old linkages with the Sangh when he was located in Maharashtra as a student. One of the key functionaries in his office was also a former member of the khaki knicker brigade. The Prime Minster was given to understand that the Sangh Parivar had no agenda to demolish the disputed mosque but expected the government to take tangible steps to facilitate construction of the temple at the earliest. He had reportedly assured that the Sangh would wait until the verdict of the Allahabad High Court was pronounced. He beseeched the PM to expedite the legal process.

I was not interested in the outcome of the meeting. After surveying the political and administrative ambience I had reached a conclusion that Narasimha Rao was a good provincial leader. He did not have the intrinsic qualities to handle the complicated affairs of the nation that had reached a crucial junction of history. He was more comfortable in the company of questionable characters like god men and wheelers and dealers than with shakers and makers of history.

My lack of interest in Narasimha Rao and his tainted regime did not propel me to the arms of the RSS and BJP friends. I had no illusion that they were determined to strike and send the country into a perilous spin. My linkages with the Sangh did not blind me to the imperatives of history and geography of India. Over the millennium India had become, in the words of Tagore, ‘ocean of the great humanity.’ India could survive by practicing pragmatic secularism and India’s national edifices could be strengthened by Hindu unity and not by Hindu militancy.

On November 25th I received a call from K. N. Gobindachariya inviting himself and two other friends to my home to dinner. I enjoyed their presence but did not like them to spoil my fish curry-dinner. The entire RSS breed, except Devdas Apte was vegetarian and frugal eaters. I appreciated their austere living style and high intellectual achievements. I appreciated their dedication, though I did not entirely agree with their post 1990 political objectives. Apte relished fish curry and often escaped the rigours of the Keshav Kunj and BJP office by sharing dinners with us.

On that night Sunanda laid out a sumptuous vegetarian dinner, which was shared with us by Gobindachariya, S. Gurumurthy and V. P. Goyal. Post dinner discussions went past midnight. What I gathered from my friends sent a shiver of chill in me. They gave enough indication that the Sangh Parivar was not against the idea of pulling down the mosque and put up a temple structure on December 6, 1992. Such an ugly incident, I pointed out, would result in catastrophic consequences. The demolition of Somnath could not be replicated in 1992. History could not be rewritten through demolition. My friends did not agree with my fears. They said that they would restrain the
kar sevaks
from demolishing the ‘
dhacha
’ (structure) by deploying RSS volunteers around the mosque. I was afraid that their brinkmanship was sure to whip up uncontrollable emotional tsunami. Would they be able to control the frenzied mob? Yes, they said. I did not feel comfortable with their tight-rope-balancing act. It could end in a disaster.

They expected a gathering of a million
kar sevaks
(volunteers) from all over the country and hoped that the proceedings at Ayodhya would be able to generate Hindu solidarity.

There was no use in stiffly opposing their arguments, but I pointed out that by demolishing the mosque in 1992 they couldn’t pull down the Congress government in Delhi and force another election. If capturing political power was the goal they should wait until the time matured for the next polls. I tried to put across the delicate internal political situation in Pakistan, blood-curdling events in Afghanistan and the fluid law and order situation in the North East, Punjab and Kashmir. The world capitals, I pointed out, would not appreciate a sudden Hindu explosion and Muslim backlash, if the mosque were destroyed, even by accident.

My friends did not agree with me. Gobind maintained silence, which could be tactical. They were oblivious to the developments in geo-politically proximate region and the world at large. They did not take into account the potential of the Islamist forces hitting out against Indian targets and alienating a large chunk of Indian population. My friends told me that the gathering at Ayodhya was likely to be a symbolic display of strength.

Why in December only? I asked. Gurumurthy replied promptly that I should read my history once again. Had not Mahmud of Ghazni demolish the Somnath temple in December 1025?

I dusted out two history books after they departed, one by Majumdar and the other by Romila Thapar. Yes, my friends were correct. Mahmud had appeared at Somnath in the middle of December 1025 and was wonder struck by its wealth worth over 20,000 dinars and the cleverly installed hanging Shiva Lingam. The idol, probably made of iron was kept floated in air by powerful magnet stones installed over the canopy and below the base. It was indeed a marvel, besides being very holy to the Hindus.

That night I went to bed after satisfying myself that the December gathering was indeed symbolic. It was impregnated with the symbol of destruction of the Somnath temple, so dear to the Hindus and a symbol of national shame. For no other reason Advani had started his
rath yatra
from the historic city. The symbolism was as clear as pristine morning air. The nation, I thought, was on the verge of facing a serious tectonic shiver.

I did not hold back the information. Next morning I sought out the Director IB and shared with him my concerns over the likely developments of December 6, 1992. He agreed with my assessment and assured that the government was fully in the picture and there was no intelligence gap. I drew his attention to the activities of Bal Thackrey and Moreswar Save of the Shiv Sena, another Hindu outfit. There were indications that the
Shiv Sainiks
were embroiled in competitive Hindu chauvinism and were eager to outmanoeuvre the RSS and VHP volunteers by taking law into their hands. On that point too the Director agreed and advised to use my technical knowledge to arrange video coverage of the days event at Ayodhya. I deployed a team apart from another team deployed officially by the IB. My team was deployed under the cover of a popular English daily and gained access to the very core of the gathering. The formal IB team operated under psychological stress and mainly depended on powerful telephoto lenses capturing the events in still frames.

Some authors have attributed a conspiracy theory that was hatched up by the RSS, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena leaders. They, as well as official agencies cited a reported meeting at the Keshav Kunj on December 5 in which L. K. Advani, M. M. Joshi, etc attended. I had a clear understanding about the meeting. There was no pronounced conspiracy. There was silent resoluteness and agreement that Ayodhya offered a unique opportunity to take the Hindutwa wave to the peak for deriving political benefit. The iron was hot and this was the time to hit.

The meeting had discussed the practical details of the Ayodhya meeting and clearly opined that the
kar sevaks
should be deployed in depth to prevent stray members of the Parivar and agent provocateurs from breaking the cordon and disturbing the mosque. There was no formal or informal decision to demolish the structure. In fact, I had submitted a detailed report to the Director and had added that the Sangh leaders might not be able to control the frenzied mob. By agreeing to adopt precautionary measures they had kept an option open for breaking the law and deriving benefit out of the chaotic actions of the frenzied mob. All that I want to add is that there was no deliberate culpability on the part of any of the RSS/BJP leaders. But there is no harm to ask as to how they were so sure of their brinkmanship? How could they be sure that after stirring an emotional tsunami they would be able to order, like king Kanute, the waves to freeze? I always felt that waves of all kinds couldn’t be frozen in action, unless superior natural forces initiate such actions.

The video footages later confirmed my apprehension. I had no doubt in my mind that a couple of Shiv Sena volunteers took the initial plunge, broke the cordon of the
swayam sevaks
and climbed the fences by defying the RSS cordon and police barriers. The BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who later tried to wash himself in secular milk, stood as a mute witness, either on his own volition or under instructions of the RSS elders. He did not act on the instructions of the central government. I do not think all the milk of the cow-belt can put a brush of white on his calculated inaction. The initial breach caused by the Shiv Sena volunteers later broke the floodgates and the events were left to the imagination and ingenuity of the mob, which was disoriented by irresponsible rhetoric of some of the Sangh Parivar speakers. The much-touted self-confidence of the RSS was dashed to the ground. It proved that tongues of fire often go out of control of the fire-maker. L. K. Advani had spat fire from the pulpit, but he failed to control the flames. Taped videos substantiated that he was progenitor of the tsunami effect that he failed to control at the vital moment of destiny. India still suffers from that tsunami caused by deliberately generated civilisational conflict.

The elation exhibited by a section of the Hindu society was no less ugly than the gleeful celebrations observed by sections of the Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The sense of betrayal and humiliation suffered by the Muslim was no less than the humiliation suffered by the Hindus by repeated destruction of the Somnath temple and desecration of the holy places at Mathura and Kashi. But, wrong doings at a particular historical period cannot be corrected by subsequent wrong doings, simply because one cannot travel back in time. Shame of one community cannot be removed by inflicting shame on another community. The radical Hindu elements and the offended Muslim community forgot these basic lessons. India again lapsed back into another bout of ugly communal violence. It appeared that for them time and history had frozen.