India-Its Spy-Masters and Spies

Posted on | June 10, 2008 | 25 Comments

Better forget about Nathan Hale, the American “patriot spy” who was hanged in UK in 1917, Mata Hari, hanged in France in 1917 and other famous names like Burgess, Blunt, and MacLean, Philby Guy Francis (Cambridge group) who basked in international limelight and have been transported to the folklore of espionage.

In independent India Col. Bhattachariya, arrested by East Pakistan intelligence allegedly in the act of contacting his Pakistani agent in North West Bengal border had attained national attention, because of prevailing warlike situation between India and Pakistan in early sixties. Bhattachariya was a spymaster and not a spy. He was arrested in the handling process. Later postmortem process established that the MI officer had not scrupulously applied all the tradecraft precautions before trying to contact his trans-border agent.

During last decade and a half the electronic and print media have attained the stature of national ombudsmen. They have reached every nook and corner of national, regional and international activities. Their sweep covers mundane to marvelous happenings.

Sensationalisation of news and events beyond all proportions without any respect and regards for space, privacy and secrecy required by national intelligence agencies increase TRP of the channels. However, in the process, either by adding wailings of the relatives of the claimed spy, they generate mass hysteria and force the governments to move tactically, diplomatically and often foolishly to satisfy the voters.

However, while highlighting the plights of “Indian Spies” detained in Pakistan and utter neglect by the government of India, in case they are lucky enough to escape the gallows and black-death behind dark prison walls, the media focus emphasis on humanitarian aspects and inevitably suggest that some institutional, if not constitutional, safeguards should be devised for the patriotic spies.

I am afraid such hypes, though laudable as humanitarian concern, are based on certain misperceptions. Espionage is a part of Statecraft, extended diplomacy and elongated efforts for war and peace. War and Peace are integral parts of a nation’s philosophy of existence and survival. There cannot be any Ramrajya where there would not be any war and there would not be any need for espionage. Such chimera exists in the souls of saints and philosophers who are not trained to think in terms of cultural, ethnic and geopolitical nationhood. Absence of these very ingredients in ancient India had led to fragmented clan and dynastic nationalities. The Europe and many parts of Asia have gone through this process and the concept of ‘Nationhood’ is rather a gift of new human identity achieved during fifteenth and sixteenth century. In India the concept had started emerging after the British conquest of India, spread of modern education and the spark of Renaissance. The unintended attitude of treating Bharat as a Ramrajya by the Nehru government had pushed India into the throes of a humiliating military and diplomatic defeat in the hands of China. India is still unable to emerge out of that ghostly shadow of Ramrajya experiment.

Our examination of the trade of Espionage cannot be complete without falling back to the Arthashashtra of Kautilya.

Espionage is the assigned Trade of the spy agencies. They use Tradecrafts to hone their professional approaches to the task of creation of Human Intelligence Assets (HumInt). This is a complicated subject and would require a few volumes to explain the details.

This concept is as old as the organised human society is. Interested readers may like to glance through chapter eleven, section seven, eight, nine onwards of Kautilyan Arthasastra by M. B. Chande (Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi). Kautilya had compiled his treatise on various aspects of espionage as it suited the kings of his days. However, the eternal aspects of human fallibility have been explained by him, by exploiting which the trained intelligence generators create their agents. This is called Tradecraft, techniques of the trade of espionage.

The concept has remained unchanged: at the end of the day a curious housewife wants to what is cooked in her neighbour’s pot what and who sleeps with her rival neighbour under her sheets. Enlarge the inquisitive individual. This simple information is vital for “chaupal” gossip and important for social cohesiveness. Enlarge this orbit. A modern nation state cannot survive without having prior warning about its neighbour’s intentions. Whenever some stupid state scions like to indulge in the luxury of indulgent ignorance or philosophical utopianism we get surprised by broken China of Hindi-Chini Bahi Bahi and Kargil. Unfortunately, in India such slumbering philosophers are treated as national heroes and blundering officers are crowned with governor’s laurels.

It is not my intention to drag you through the minefields of intelligence generation tools. This is a vast subject and cannot be narrated in a column. My intention is to narrate certain developments involving national crisis reactions in the public and the media, which have exposed the raw sides of weakness and unpreparedness of our governing tools and vulnerability of our media and members of the public.

Hijacking of IC 814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar is a glaring example of intelligence and security failure of the governments of India and Nepal. This single incident had created several chain reactions-creation of new jihadi tanzeems called Jais-e-Mohammad, killing of Daniel Pearl, a grand kidnapping for ransom in Kolkata, transfer of part of the ransom money to Mohammad Atta by the ISI and utilization of that fund in the 9/11 attacks on Twin Towers and the Indian Parliament. The chain reaction continues even today, the USA behaving like a Nation State and India reacting as a lump of clay. The USA had brought in Homeland Security Act; India enacted and abolished POTA to prove that it is a better secular country and more democratic than the USA. Long live Bharat!

Besides these monumental cascading consequences I would like to draw attention of the readers to the video footages of demonstration by family members and workers of certain secular political parties, beating chest and wailing and forcing a government to free the hijacked passengers and the plain at great national humiliation and cost. The sounds of humiliation still echoes; political parties blaming each other in the name of communalism and secularism and faux pas committed and uncommitted.

Have you ever seen on electronic and print media the peoples of Israel and USA surrounding the Knesset and the White House to force the governments to take action to get their relatives released or declare wars on the perpetrators? Even at the height of national crisis the US media and people displayed dignified and solemn reactions-no chest-beating and no electronic wailing.

The same thing happened over the issue of death sentence awarded to one Manjit Singh by the Apex Court in Pakistan on charges of his alleged involvement in subversive and sabotage activities. His severity of the sentence was not because of his alleged involvement in espionage activities. Around the same time another person was repatriated from Pakistan after he completed jail sentence on charges of espionage inside Pakistan. The gentleman entered India raising hands and proclaiming before print and electronic media that he was an Indian spy and the government of India neglected to honour his welfare. His wails were beamed to attract national attention and to the alleged fact that India does not look after its spies.

I have no point to make on the issue if Manjit Singh had acted as an Indian saboteur inside Pakistan. I have no knowledge and no government would ever admit that it carries out espionage and acts of sabotage and subversion in another country. Whenever, such incidents happen in India we blame Pakistani and Bangladeshi intelligence agencies and their agent-organisations. Similarly they also blame our intelligence agencies.

The point to make is that no people in any nation in the West behaved in war and peace times during World Wars and Cold War conundrum. Their media did not wail and expose the nation’s raw hides with vengeance. An unwritten code is followed by the countries of the Dollar and Euro world as well as the countries behind the so-called Iron and Bamboo Curtains. In India we do not pretend to have any curtains at all. We dance nakedly at national discomfiture. We dance in electronic media, do some “Bahnagra” and Bharat Natyam in print media and leave the matters to “secular” and “communal” political parties to slug at each other with the holy objective of exposing our rotten national bones.

We must understand a few home truths:

• Every informer is not a SPY, but every Spy is an informer.

• No government would ever admit charges of carrying out espionage and sabotage activities.

• Spies are, if they are, a group of professionals, who are exposed to usual professional risk, like a soldier at the front and a policeman before a rioting mob. They are trained to get killed and maimed. They do not come back home amidst sounds of cymbals and horns. They return, if they return at all, quietly and live as quietly for which they are trained and paid.

• Espionage is not a salariat (in Urdu), meaning salaried job with encoded service rules. This trade is based on unwritten laws governing their tradecraft training, single or continued compensation package, security instructions, and no lost baggage claim principle.

• The entire trade is outside the purview of media glare and not based on any Act of the country.

• The media have unwritten sets of rules to honour national secrets and to ignore certain facts even if such hypes are likely to increase their TRP.

• The Public are expected to be more patriotic and heroic to the point suffering great personal loss, which nave been exhibited in cases of our soldiers and security personnel martyring themselves in action fields. Millions have perished in several wars, but nations have survived. Individuals and organised societies survive honourably only when the people gain strength to suffer silently. War losses are not matters for street-wailing. Intelligence warfare is another kind of war nations wage through extended diplomatic activities.

From the lowest category of spies or agents to the highest category there exist several intermediary layers. A mere trans-border smuggler used as a “single task” informer or a “deep penetration itinerary spy” is different from a well trained, embedded Long Term Resident Agent (LTRA) or a trained saboteur. Sabotage and subversion activities are unadmitted tools of silent or proxy-warfare. Most nations do and deny it. The ultimate test of success is the desired results and Deniability. No country would own up a lost, caught and punished spy. No country makes a hero out of a spy like Pakistan did to Abdul Kader Khan, the great nuclear bandit and pirate, aka a scientist.

Self-confessed informers like Mohanlal Bhashkar, Ruplal and Kashmir Singh (as claimed by them) are single task border smugglers and itinerants. They work on a specific task and after successful completion; failure or abortion the handling officer has no legal and moral responsibility towards their welfare. One-package-compensation is the law of the game. The person who agrees to do the job does so willingly out of a genuine or generated motivation. Creation of motivation is part of the tradecraft. Getting motivated is part either a part of patriotic feeling or simple greed for easy money.

Their brief is limited and the tasks are specific. Most of these trans-border human assets are not elaborately trained and briefed. As most of these border smugglers and illegal traders are left to device their own security aspects. They move like eels across international borders and straightaway sent to the frying pan when caught. Such assets are “feed and milk” type human agents. Some of them are known as “double agents.” A same talent may work for Indian and Pakistani agencies.

However, well trained, indoctrinated and Tradecraft oriented deep penetration Long Term Resident Agents are akin to classical agents of the type of Philby, Ethel and Julius Rosenburg etc. Such spies are very rare to come by. The agency takes full responsibility of locating, cultivating and if possible retrieving such highly priced agents. The lucky ones manage to trek back. Some are retrieved and most are lost, once detected by the agencies of the target countries. Some are forgotten and some are transported to folklore.

Spies are unsung soldiers and heroes of Statecraft. No country would admit spying in another country. They would deny existence of any agent, once they are caught in action and maintain deathly silence even if the media hype up such incidents. Normally the media has an unwritten understanding of the rules of the game and acts of successful or failed espionage activities do not form part of TRP increase marketing device. Every nation follows this golden rule, except, perhaps India, the infinite free country, where one is free to peep into the forbidden areas of statecraft.

Espionage is both real and unreal.

Every Trade and every Profession has inbuilt advantages and risks. A soldier is trained to die on the front. A policeman is taught to face brickbats and bullets and a spy is taught to gather intelligence and forget that he had any emotional, legal and moral bondage with his handler.

Some spies mix up smuggling, trans-border illegal trading with tidbit intelligence gathering. Some are prepared to face the gallows if caught in more serious violation of the laws of the country where they are stationed.

During Cold War the US, USSR, West and West Germany often “traded in” exchange of “Security Prisoners”- a euphemism for spies. India and Pakistan have not developed such bilateral convention of periodical exchange. No Pakistani spy or saboteur has so far been sentenced to death by any Indian court. Pakistan have awarded death sentence on some compromised Indian agents. This unwritten systemic protocol is rarely tinkered with at diplomatic level. However, India was forced on few occasions to intercede diplomatically without success.

Stealing national secrets is an offence under respective Official Secrets Acts and other Penal provisions. Once exposed and caught the spies are tried and punished. Governments decline to admit existence of such spies. This is the reason that leads to incarceration of Indian and Pakistani spies in jails for unspecified periods. Perhaps sufficient confidence building measures have not been established to reach that level of international protocol, which can facilitate periodical exchange of routine spies caught in actions of espionage.

There is no question of “bad” or “good” treatment to informers, often hyped as spies. The agencies are known to be reasonably responsive to the families of distressed informers. Often the compensation package is fat.

There is simply no institutionalised mechanism to attend to the human aspect of the Spy-trade. Response of the agencies depend on category of the concerned spy, importance of the mission, magnitude of results delivered and bondage of trust between the agent and his handling agency. Hyping up in expectation of a fat package of compensation does not always pay. Intelligence agencies are like proverbial leeches. They shrink back when sprayed with salts of media hype.

It is patriotic, heroic and great honour to be a high grade SPY, if one understands the rules of the game clearly. It is simply give and take, feed and milk and forget…forget…forget game; not to be immersed in emotional tears.

Intelligence is as remorseless a war as frontline wars are. The citizens are expected to honour this unwritten law of unwritten saga of statecraft.

Category: Articles

Comments

25 Responses to “India-Its Spy-Masters and Spies”

Aditi Singh
June 11th, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

A very informative article. We are so ignorant about the real spy world. Now I understand that hyping an alleged spy case is not good for the country. We behave like we did during IC814 perhaps because we have not suffered as the American, British and Other countries suffered during World Wras. Perhaps our national response should be more dignified and patriotic.
Joseph Karaikal
June 11th, 2008 @ 6:38 pm

A big punch at Indian government and people. There sould be some lesson fpr the TRP hunting media in this article. I am fascinated by it.
Joseph Karaikal
June 11th, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

A big punch at Indian government and people. There sould be some lesson for the TRP hunting media in this article. I am fascinated by it.
Rudra Pratap
June 12th, 2008 @ 8:56 am

A find this piece and all other pieces fascinating. Dhar is doing a great job for the country. I now understand little better the role of a spy and spymasterand role to be played by people and media. Perhaps we have not sacrificed enough lives for the country to make us better patriots. The Rajputs did it. And they are still the best patriots.
A Police Officer
June 12th, 2008 @ 8:58 am

A fascinating article. The PP show on ISI is eye opening and all these are for free. More people should read and get benefited.
Norman Hale
June 12th, 2008 @ 9:00 am

Accidentally hit against the site sitting in Detroit. I am lucky. All the articles are bold. I want to read his book on ISI.
Robin Haldar
June 12th, 2008 @ 9:01 am

As a media person I find the site of Dhar a gold mine. We click on whenever we want better data and analysis.
Sankara Bhede
June 12th, 2008 @ 4:15 pm

Very interesting. I think the author has rightly lashed his pen against the people who fail to appreciate a point or situation of national crisis and the political parties who make all issues as WE versus Them.
Satya Narain
June 12th, 2008 @ 4:16 pm

A very timely warning to all specially the media. They make living impossible by squeezing emotion out of nothing.
Abhishek Sharan
June 12th, 2008 @ 6:22 pm

A real masterpiece on the tradecraft of intelligence and the invisible, robust walls of silence/denial that necessarily envelope it, Sir.
I was wondering, though, if it should be obligatory on the part of the government/intelligence agency of even a “single task spy”, to at least fulfill their promises—if any—that might have been given to look after the basic needs of his once he gets nabbed by an enemy state. I understand, though, that it does not make sense for any govt/intel agency to own him up ever.
Abhishek Sharan
June 12th, 2008 @ 6:26 pm

A real masterpiece on the tradecraft of intelligence and the invisible, robust walls of silence/denial that necessarily envelope it, Sir.
I was wondering, though, if it should be obligatory on the part of the government/intelligence agency of even a “single task spy”, to at least fulfill their promises—if any—that might have been given to look after the basic needs of his `family’once he gets nabbed by an enemy nation state. I understand, though, that it does not make sense for any govt/intel agency to own him up ever.
Maloy Krishna Dhar
June 13th, 2008 @ 12:42 pm

This is for Abhishek and others who asked me through mail. Espionage is as heartless a war as battlefied wars are. Difference is:countries take a count of MIA, DIA (died in action) and the boys who return home. In espionage there is not official MIA, DIA, but those who return are quietly looked after, if they do not make media waves and embarass the government, which is not unwilling to compensate, depending on the tasking amd performance. Obviously, a nuclear spy like Dr. Kader Khan would be awarded the highest honour and a transborder smuggler would get whatever he deserves. Every profession has risks inbuilt. War-journalists are the best examples. There cannot be any emotional blacmailing by the families and the media. Espionage is not in the domain of the media,it is a specialed job done by specialised agencies as parts of extended diplomacy.
Aupam
June 13th, 2008 @ 5:32 pm

I am fascinated by the article. Feel a little more proud as an Indian. Wish our leaders of espionage business write more and keep the people abreast with the ground situation. People are ignorant and do not know that patriotism calls for sacrifice and blood shedding.
Abhishek Sharan
June 13th, 2008 @ 6:19 pm

I got the point, Sir. I agree: the rules of inter-state warfare through espionage are guided exclusively by the larger strategic/tactical imperatives. Thanks for responding.
Sarabjit
June 14th, 2008 @ 1:45 pm

Dhar is unkind to agents. Having run so many soies he should suggest some laws to improve their conditions. They also serve the country. There should be a law for them. Can Dhar reply to me?
Maloy Krishna Dhar
June 14th, 2008 @ 3:13 pm

This is for Sarabjit. No country in the world has a law for spies. It is a wrong expectation. No country admits the fact of spying. It is a different game. Blame me but I am unable to attend to humanitarian concerns as a professionsl. As a human I have sympathies for them.
Amol
June 16th, 2008 @ 8:39 pm

Even today the media is not accepting that they are partly responsible for defeat in IC814 Hijacking case.

They are behaving like bunch of idiots or businessmen… I wud like to refer to their character like the bad guy -media mogul portryaed in James bond movie… Tommorrow Never Dies, who makes money out of disaster and death of people.

This article is a tight slap on the self confessed keepers of democracy.

They are so arrogant that they even commented on the decisions of the Honourable High Court and Supreme Court. I dont know wht. is next.
sarita
June 19th, 2008 @ 2:12 am

are there any female spies around here?
Sir, can u tell us a real story where a female spy was captured by the enemy and then brutally raped till she spoke up?
Ben
June 20th, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

This was a very interesting article where you have expalined in depth on how our country as this amateurish stand towards protecting its security interests. How can India stand-up to counter threats like China (bigger) or Bangladesh (smaller) or other internal ones ? True that Espionage is one of the areas that dont’ have any written laws.

I read this book “By Way Of Deception: The Making And Unmaking Of A Mossad Officer – by Victor Ostrovsky “. Its interesting to see how these guys works and their reach beyound continents. Can our Ram Rajya protect it self and its citizens with a similar agenecy of that caliber ? Can a few tough gentlemen lead the way to making something like the DHS in the US, or framing something like the US Patriot Act or start tapping each and every conversation that goes on in Pakistan or Bangladesh, analyze the same and see if that means a threat to us or not. I think we should learn from examples like Israel or for that matter US, based on what they are doing in the middle-east/Afghanistan. It needs to be conceived as another way of self-protection.
Namita Srawan
July 7th, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

Dear Mr. Dhar,
You may not know me. My father worked with you somewhere in the northeast. He knew you a man of contradiction-extremely kind and severely ruthless in your anti-insurgency and spy operations. I read your two books, which are informative and tender-literary in nature. How do you manage to pack all the contradictions in you? We pay our homage to your late wife, about whom papa speaks in glowing terms.
Namita.
Bharat Hitachintak
November 27th, 2008 @ 2:35 pm

Very interesting and illuminating article. I had read the articles “Lucci and Her Hypnotized Cobras” on http://www.swaveda.com. There are descriptions of at least two spies who came to India in the early 1960′s in that factual short story. Meeting a spy after she has finished her tour of duty is an interesting episode described in that article. It appears the rule of the game is “forget, forget, forget and show no acknowledgment of past contacts.” That is what Lucci did. Is there an official program like the witness protection program for the retired or ex-spies to change their identity and reintegrate them in a far away unidentifiable community with a new identity with “new past” programmed into their memory banks to keep them from accidentally revealing themselves to someone who should not be privy to their past? Is that not a heavy burden on the governement financially or are the ex-spies offered another productive job to earn their keep? I know in one case the late Prime Minister Indiraji Gandhi personally visited the slain spy’s mother after he was killed by the Pakistanis in London. I do not know if the Govrnement of India provided the bereaved mother any substantial relief. I hope it did. I will appreciate your comments. – Bharata Hitachintaka
Yagnaroopaya
May 15th, 2009 @ 3:43 am

I just feel like commenting:) Good stuff!
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hirakant singh
February 25th, 2011 @ 10:47 am

Hi Sir,

I know you are one of the best spy from India.I know its not the right place to ask,if u have time than please check my comment and contact me.Sir,after the second world war the importance of inteligence is increase many time than before.As per my point of view now inteligence become terrorism.First KGB and CIA open this type of operation in different part of the world .Now most of the countries spy agencies doing same thing, ex- CIA,ISI,Mossad,Chinese(CINI).Now its not a easy task to say that any bomb explosion sabotage is made by any terrorist org. or from inteligence .Now a days inteligence directly involve in terrorist activity or they help terrorist on there work.There is possibility that 09/11 attack planned by any inteligence from,NOrth Korea,China,Russia or may be from mossad for there own benefit or for the benefit of there country.26/11 attack in India may be planed by ISI but we also need to take this from other point who are benefitted by this only isi pakistan or some other also.Our inteligence agency main week point is that we are not start counter terroism cell till 2000 like KGB or mossad which help to protect them from outside world may be its terrorist or Inteligence work.
abhishek pratap singh
March 9th, 2011 @ 11:47 am

spies is the 1 who gives every thing for the ske of nation and when gets caught instead of feeling bad we should understand that he has sacrificed his life for the sakle of his nation.
but yes the after effects that 1 faces after he gets caught are unbearable.