Tuesday, October 28, 2008

CIA Records Take Lid Off High Treason By Indira Cabinet Minister


A minister of Indira Gandhi's cabinet betrayed India's "war objectives" to the Central Intelligence Agency in December 1971, causing an abrupt end to the Bangladesh war under vicious US armtwisting.

This is the highlight of the book CIA's Eye on South Asia by journalist Anuj Dhar. Published by Delhi-based Manas Publications, which is facing government's ire for coming out with a book on the R&AW, the book compiles declassified CIA records on India and her neighbours. It specifically spotlights what arguably has been India's biggest spy scandal.

In the run up to the 1971 India Pakistan war over what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), The New York Times first hinted at the presence of a CIA operative in the Indian government. By December The Washington Post had reported that US President Richard Nixon's South Asia policy was being guided by "reports from a source close to Mrs. Gandhi."

Records and telecons declassified recently - but not properly explained up till now - show that a dramatic turnaround came on December 6 when a CIA operative, whom Dhar pins down as a minister of the Indira Cabinet, leaked out India's "war objectives" to the agency. Prime Minister Gandhi told Union Cabinet that apart from liberating Bangladesh, India intended to take over a strategically important part of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and go for the total annihilation of Pakistan's armed forces so that Pakistan "never attempts to challenge India in the future."

When he came to know of the CIA report, a furious Nixon blurted out that "this woman [Indira Gandhi] suckered us," thinking that Mrs. Gandhi had promised him that India won't attack East Pakistan - not to speak of targeting West Pakistan and PoK. "But let me tell you, she's going to pay," he told his National Security Advisor Dr Henry Kissinger even as he tried to leak out the CIA report to give her bad press.

The CIA went on assess that fulfillment of India's "war objectives" might lead to "the emergence of centrifugal forces which could shatter West Pakistan into as many as three or four separate countries."

As a direct result of the operative's information, the Nixon administration went on an overdrive to save West Pakistan from a massive Indian assault. Because the President felt that "international morality will be finished - the United Nations will be finished - if you adopt the principle that because a country is democratic and big it can do what the hell it pleases."

Nixon personally threatened the USSR with a "major confrontation" between the superpowers should the Soviets failed to stop the Indians from going into West Pakistan. Kissinger secretly met Chinese Permanent Representative at the UN to apprise him of the CIA operative's report and rub in that what India was planning to do with Pakistan with the Soviet backing could turn out to be a "dress rehearsal" of what they might do to China.

Dhar quotes in the book the official records showing that USSR's First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov visited Delhi after Nixon's threat and told the "Indians to confine their objectives to East Pakistan" and "not to try and take any part of West Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir" as "Moscow was concerned about the possibility of a great power confrontation over the subcontinent." Kuznetsov also extracted a guarantee from Prime Minister Gandhi that India will not attack West Pakistan. This decision was promptly conveyed to Nixon. On 16 December 1971 when Nixon was told that India had declared a ceasefire, he exulted: "We have made it… it's the Russians working for us." Kissinger congratulated him for saving West Pakistan - India's main target, as per the operative's report to the CIA.

Dhar repudiates recent assertion by a former Indian Navy chief that showing up of America's biggest nuclear powered carrier into the Bay of Bengal during the war had something to do with the accidental destruction of a US plane in Dhaka during an Indian strafing. "Declassified records make it unambiguously clear that the month-long show of strength by the USS Enterprise and accompanying flotilla was a byproduct of the CIA operative's reports," he writes, reproducing chunks from official records detailing how Nixon ordered a naval task force towards the subcontinent to "scare off" India from attacking West Pakistan.

In subsequent years, former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and two deputy PMs - Jagjivan Ram and Y B Chavan - were alleged to be the CIA operative active during the 1971 war. However, all such charges lacked any substantiation because there was no confirmation whether or not such an operative ever existed. As such no constructive discussion on the issue ever took off. This has changed now given the unassailable evidence in the form of US records making it clear that the CIA had a "reliable" agent operating out of the Indian cabinet in 1971.

In declassified records the name of the operative has been censored because the CIA Director has "statutory obligations to protect from disclosure [the Agency's] intelligence sources." Dhar writes: "Naming the Indian operative even after so many years will adversely impact the Indo-US relations, and hit the Agency's prospects of recruiting new informants."

However, he suggests that Indian government may have known the identity of the operative. "R&AW under the most capable R. N. Kao could not have missed the reference to the 'source close to Mrs. Gandhi' and must have dug deeper," he writes, adding that in 1972 Mrs. Gandhi herself charged that "she had information that the CIA had become active in India".

More pertinently, Dhar quotes from the declassified record of a 5 October 1972 meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh and US Secretary of State William Rogers. During the meeting, Singh asserted that "CIA has been in contact with people in India in 'abnormal ways.'" and that India had information that "proceedings of Congress Working Committee were known to US officials within two hours of meetings".

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20 comments:

Unknown said...

Readers will wait with great expectation as Anuj Dhar has established himself as an investigative journalist extraordinary.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the intro

Anonymous said...

This i have read before... what is the new part here? i thought you would actually name the guy...

Anonymous said...

i think the CIA is also responsible for the cyclones and tsunamis and indias poverty...

Anonymous said...

Young journalist ANUJ DHAR is widely known for his untiring efforts for his 'Mission NETAJI did not die in TAIPE air crash'. He had a natural knack to come out with sincere results on Subhash Bose. But the bureaurocratic and political lethargy by successive Governments' unwillingness to honour REAL HEROES OF INDIA in the freedom struggle failed to unearth the mystery. Readers would love to have something new from ANUJ Dhar but not the type which a new set of journalists put out in sensational disclosures in print and electronic media today. TVK

Anonymous said...

Waiting Anul Dhar to open the lid.
RPS

Unknown said...

Great start Anuj da!

Anonymous said...

Give little more details about this book, author, the price, number of pages and any other publication by the author before this one...

Anonymous said...

Yes, the name of the operative would be nice for the current circumstance

Shrivathsa said...

bandho,

I thank you profusely for having taken up this onerous task of bringing out the truth about the traitors. I am eagerly awaiting the launch of your book. The book by Shri Maloy Krishna Dhar named "Operation Triple X" also makes a reference to this mole as "ram karan prasad". i wonder if it is y b chavan or jagjivan ram.

Anonymous said...

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1. fake landing on the moon during nixon's time
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top Scientists Ask Medical Journal Science To Retract Original AIDS Papers

December 9, 2008 [ check rethinkingaids.org ]

3.of course 911 was staged

just look tthrough u tube videos and do ur own research ..

check http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=section&sectionName=newsletter

[ scroll down and check the books " seeds of destruction", " globalization of poverty " " america's war on terrorism" ] i just bought the pdf versions..

cheers to us finding the truth..

RAW Indian said...

Well just wanted to tell you,Do you really have convinced yourself about a breach in '71.I am in full doubt.Look, even when India had good relations with DGSE(french intel) during Rajiv Gandhi,they penetrated PMO in a big manner.Later during Ronald Regan,Bill Clinton and even during G.W Bush and Monmohan singh Government CIA penetrated IB,R&AW,National Security Council Secretariat(under PMo) many times stealing loads of Information,even Couple of months back too.And also you've heard about Rabindar Singh I think.But my point is,Indira Gandhi never asked for POk when she returned over 90,000 soldiers to pakistan under Shimla agreement of '75.Out of generosity and some other issues.And Your Indian Ocean thing also was the PSYWAR camp launched by CIA against Indira Gandhi because of her own independent policies over Pakistan especially east Pakistan.There were no clandestine meeting with any Russian counterparts about this matter.But I am definitely looking forward for it.

Kautilya said...

Its true that desicion to free 90000 POK was dubious but as per details mentioned in simla agreement , India wants recognition of bangladesh from pakistan and as well as in Jammu Kashmir, the line of control resulting from the ceasefire of December 17, 1971, shall be respected by both sides without prejudice to the recognised position of either side. Neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations. Both sides further undertake to refrain from the threat or the use of force in violation of this line.

But i would be curious to know further findings .

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It is a fact that CIA & other foreign agencies try to plant their informers in all strategic department.
All countries do it in other & enemy countries.
So it is the duty of Prime minister to see if any anti-national mole is passing the secrets to an enemy country.
India must take care of not to repeat such things in future.I doubt if congress has no mole at present,passing information to Pakistan & USA.

Anonymous said...

yes its true that why mrs gandhi returned 90000 POW is a very debatable and contentious issue..not to breach the international border as far as kashmir is concerned and to respect it was what MR ZA BHUTTO and MRS GANDHI decided on 3rd july 1972...but just a few days later on 14th july 1972 speaking in the natinaol assembly of pakistan he expressed his solidarity for the right of self determination of kashmiri people..what do we call this?? breach of agreement,simple back stabbing,appealing to the vulnerabilties of his morose countrymen or espousing violence in kashmir???

Alokesh said...

Anuj,

Great..
I know it is you , who can do it!!
Bravo!
But Beware, This is going to be another Whistle blower's effort, akin to Mr Manning & Mr Julian..
May God Bless you..
Truth prevails!!
JAI HIND!

சுழியம் said...

Because Marxists are powerful in India, anyone who is against them are stamped as CIA agent.

The person who started this allegation that Morarji Desai is a CIA agent in Indira's cabinet is Seymor Hersh, who is notorious for making allegations with proofs that can never be verified. Otherwise, he would gather proofs already found by others and get popular and awarded by the leftist intellectual clout - for example, the My Lai Massacre or the Abugarib prison tortures and get Pulitzer award.

Pulitzer award is given mostly to people who are against non-left leaning governments. They could be of any shades of left from pure Marxism to the bastard Liberation Theology.

Seymor Hersh got exposed once when his support was for people who get supported by Chile's communist regime.

Seymor Hersh has based this allegation, the Morarji Desai being the spy of CIA, on his direct contacts with Indian diplomats.

However, it has been proved that he never had any chance to interact with Indian diplomats and he never did interact with them at all.

It would get interesting if we go further. As per Seymer Hersh, Morarji Desai has worked for CIA in 1971 as a mole from Indira's cabinet.

However, Morarji Desai has come out of Congress party by 1969 itself condemning Indira's nationalization of banks as demanded by KGB.

As a rule, anyone who is against the Communist fatherland must be a CIA spy for all the Commie supporting and American hating disinformationists.

Therefore, Morarji Desai remains non-absolved in this Nehruvian India.

Anonymous said...

Recently I watched an episode of "The West Wing"- an American TV show revolving around the people of the White House.
In the episode, there is a fictitious attack by India on Pakistan. And as in reality, the President dislikes India attacking Pak. It sends an Ambassador...

Why does US have to interfere in everyone's affairs?
First stopped India; then they themselves went into Pakistan to kill Osama.Hypocrites!

Anonymous said...

Could it be person responsible for the defence of the nation ।