BHARATA BHARATI

“Information collected by Pakistani agents operating in India is routinely shared with a number of Western intelligence agencies and the Vatican. They, in turn, feed this information discreetly into various Indian intelligence agencies and networks though possibly excluding military intelligence, which tends to be hard-nosed and committed to the task of interdicting India’s external enemies.” – Dr. Gautam Sen

Pakistan’s ISI maintains a truly massive network of spies across India, completely dwarfing Indian penetration of Pakistan. Not all these agents are Muslims and the political party of at least one senior former Union Cabinet Minister is known to have co-operated with them prior to the Delhi bomb blasts of 2005, giving them safe passage through UP, according to a senior Indian intelligence official. Indian intelligence penetration of Pakistan was grievously damaged by three Indian prime ministers in succession, one of whom handed over the names of Indian agents in Pakistan, all of whom were duly arrested, tortured and executed. He was the Indian prime minister who received Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, the Nishan-e-Haider as reward, which he accepted. This is the same traitor who had earlier had blocked Krishna Menon’s demand for a higher defence budget preceding China’s invasion of India, an episode recorded in Gopal’s biography of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Another Indian prime minister of the 1990s partially dismantled the Indian intelligence network in Pakistan that had been painstakingly built up subsequently. It is possible that the names of some Indian agents in Pakistan were disclosed to them for reasons that should prompt alarm. A third Indian prime minister forbade Indian retaliation for Pakistani terror attacks against India, which had been authorised by Rajiv Gandhi (there is much more to this man than his family’s outrageous behaviour suggests). These retaliatory attacks against Pakistan had been highly effective in deterring them from initiating assaults against India since Indian intelligence agents planted several bombs in Pakistan for every one they exploded in India.

The most senior official of the same Indian administration also made a devastating faux pas in a boastful public statement (typically dumb babu behaviour) in the aftermath of Kargil that enabled the Pakistanis to identify a high-level Indian agent operating in Pakistan. The nature of his subsequent interrogation, torture and execution by the Pakistani authorities does not bear recounting. This event was disclosed in the Indian media when a senior Indian army officer complained bitterly about the foolishness of the statement by India’s most senior official at the time and its horrendous consequences.

I think something much more far-reaching is now occurring in Indo-Pak intelligence cooperation, which presumably has the approval of the incumbent government and its ruling deity. The Pakistani ISI collects intelligence from multiple sources on India’s Hindu organisations, in addition to the usual intelligence on Indian military, political and economic institutions and their activities. The intelligence gathering on Hindu organisations especially includes the Sangh Parivar and its affiliate organisations as well as others.

I have reason to suspect that this information, collected by Pakistani agents operating in India, is routinely shared with a number of Western intelligence agencies and the Vatican. They, in turn, feed this information discreetly into various Indian intelligence agencies and networks though possibly excluding military intelligence, which tends to be hard-nosed and committed to the task of interdicting India’s external enemies. However, they may be in the know because of their own extensive and efficient reach. It is not difficult to guess one specific dimension of this startling development and the identity key high-level Indian Muslims who engage directly with the Pakistanis as well on their frequent trips of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, countries with whose agencies Indian intelligence is also somewhat engaged.

The information gathered by their Pakistani counterparts constitutes the database being used against alleged Hindu militants. This information is also available to the ruling party, which is using them for blatant electoral purposes and maintenance of their unholy hold over India’s economy and society by all means fair and foul. I would hazard a guess that some of information, supplied by the Pakistani ISI through their Western intermediaries (especially the Anglo-Americans) has been deployed to entrap Hindu activists and is likely to have been fabricated in the first place.

Finally, the activities of Pakistani ISI agents in India are regarded as extraordinarily valuable by the Chinese, who share much of the infromation generated and also make requests for specific critical items. I think they particularly seek information on the movement of India’s mobile nuclear missiles, which, apparently, unknown to Indians, are much easier to detect than believed. As a result, the urgency of the third leg of India’s nuclear missile delivery triad has never been greater.

If, one of these days, you hear I was the victim of a hit-and-run vehicular accident somewhere in India please know it was all in a good cause!

» Dr. Gautem Sen is President, World Association of Hindu Academicians, London.

Filed under: india, pakistan, USA | Tagged: BJP, bureaucracy, chinese intelligence agencies, geopolitics, india, intelligence gathering india, internet security, ISI, kashmir, MI6, nation-state, pakistan, politics, RAW, roman catholic church, spy, spying, technology, UPA-2, USA, vatican, vatican intelligence service, western intelligence agencies |