Nazia Nazar
Over the years, a good number of disgruntled operatives working for Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the premier Indian intelligence agency, have disappeared without a trace to settle in countries like United States or the United Kingdom etc. The defections are said to be the result of despair and despondency or for a better life style. On 17th April 2016, it was reported that three officers of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) “willingly fled” to a western country, which has a history of accepting and facilitating such disappearances of Indian intelligence officers. All were posted on senior levels and had shifted their families to that country much before they themselves disappeared. Two of the officers were handling two South Asian countries, while the third was handling a large East Asian country.
It is assumed that all three were working for the Western countries for long and passed on vital information before disappearing. This is not for the first time that officers working for the Indian spy agency have “willingly disappeared”. As per official records, since the creation of the agency in 1968, nine such instances have been reported with the famous defection case of Rabinder Singh (joint secretary in RAW) defecting to the United States in 2004. Most of the other agents had defected while they were posted in Western Europe or North America. In its April 27, 2010 report, the Indian NDTV had stated that RAW had a history of agents who had switched their loyalties towards countries where they were working.
The NDTV had maintained: “The most infamous case which shook RAW out of reverie was of Rabinder Singh who became a mole of American intelligence agency CIA and flew to the US.” In 2007, RAW had to call back its 1975 batch officer Ravi Nair from Colombo because of his alleged “involvement” with a woman agent of Chinese intelligence acting as honey trap for him.” Apart from defections, Indian intelligence agency RAW is also plagued by other problems identified as over-bureaucratization of the system with allegations about favoritism in promotions, corruption, ego clashes, no financial accountability and inter-departmental rivalry etc. The agency also suffers from ethnic imbalances in the officer cadre. The agency officials have also developed strong tendency to exploit their status for unlawful activities.
A former chief Ashok Chaturvedi was accused of utilizing funds for personal/family leisure trips. Many officials have reportedly suffered seriously at the hands of senior officials on sexual harassment etc. On 19 August 2008 a female Director (Language) namely Ms. Bhatia who had served as head of RAW Training Institute in Gurgaon, tried to commit suicide in front of Prime Minister’s Office, alleging inaction and wrong findings of a sexual harassment complaint filed against a Joint Secretary, who was on deputation to RAW. She was discharged from duty on the ground that she was mentally unfit. Another factor attributing to the defections of the agency is low salaries as compared to other departments of the Indian government. It has been reported that the salaries and other benefits of intelligence officials are at par with the state police and clerks.
Anyhow, RAW is known for its vile acts in the neighboring countries especially Pakistan. With the arrest of Kulbushan Yadav and his confession for having contacts with the sub-nationalists in Balochistan, involvement in mass murder of innocent civilians like Hazaras, and funding extremists’ organizations for spread of terrorism in Pakistan, India stands exposed. From the arrested spies, it has transpired that R&AW-NDS nexus is working to destabilize the region by promoting extremist terrorists organizations like Daesh, TTP, ETIM etc. In fact, due to growing influence of a particular group of Indian Police Services (IPS) and Indian Army over RAW, the organization is turning into a “Hindu fascist” entity promoting Hindu radicalization of Indian society in collaboration with RSS, BJP, Bajrang Dal and VHP etc. The RAW-NDS nexus and their affiliation with the above extremists’ outfits are responsible for the deplorable condition of minorities in India.
A few years ago, an eminent Indian scholar Dr. Prem Mahadevan, a senior researcher with the Global Security Team at the Center for Security Studies in Zurich, had opined in his book “The politics of counter-terrorism in India”, fearing that the American CIA might use counter-terrorism meetings to recruit Indian intelligence operatives, New Delhi had opted to restrict agency-to-agency contacts with Washington DC. Prem Mahadevan’s book reveals that since 2001, there have been at least two cases of penetration of RAW by the American Central Intelligence Agency. The Indian scholar had further maintained that in pursuit of a more comfortable lifestyle, at least nine RAW officers have till date gone abroad without leave since the agency’s creation in 1968. Most of these agents had defected while they were posted in Western Europe or North America.
The book says that particularly damaging was the defection of Sikander Lal Malik, a personal aide to RAW chief Rameshwar Nath Kao, who had defected during the 1970s while he was posted in the United States. He was alleged to have taken extremely sensitive information with him. In its February 8, 2010 edition, famous Indian magazine “Outlook India” had reported that a former RAW Chief Ashok Chaturvedi used to take his wife along on international trips at official expense. After retirement, Chaturvedi had a diplomatic passport issued for himself and his wife. Earlier, in June 2004, a key RAW official Rabinder Singh had defected to America. He was serving as a Joint Secretary and the head of RAW’s South East Asia Department. Despite being under surveillance for a very long time, Rabinder had managed to defect with some sensitive files he had allegedly removed from the RAW headquarters in New Delhi.
