THE UNSUNG INDIAN SUPER-SPY – KAO

 Started R&AW and started Indian Intelligence

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

Every PROFESSION, or PRODUCT  has a hall-mark for excellence.

And, it applies for spies and intelligence agents too.

But, its down-right tragic when MANY Indians don’t  know about the guy who single-handedly managed to thwart both fronts of Pakistan during the war and helped Sikkim induct in India.

Even when at his death-bed, very few people attended his funeral to show their respects. He had to keep his socialization almost little to none. That was the PRICE of the profession he was in.

The least we can do is to acknowledge his services, and honour him with recognition.

The man who actually deserves a Bharat Ratna, but still many Indians don’t  know him.

To start off his amazing chain of feats, let's start at  the very beginning.

After Independence, Mr. Kao was assigned the job of protecting the VIPs of independent India. He was soon accompanying Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru almost on all foreign tours so much so that they form a close and strong bond. And thereafter, Jawaharlal Nehru promoted him to the job of head of security of the Prime Minister Nehru.

In 1960, he was sent to newly-independent Ghana to help the government build the intelligence network, despite of lack of resources and skilled manpower. Kao was very successful at this mission, but was never acknowledged properly. Such was Nehru’s legacy!

By the time he returned, he found out war with the Chinese broke out which resulted in a devastating defeat of India. India had a close war with Pakistan in 1965, which could have been better, but for General Muchu Choudhury.

After these successive blows to India, Prime Minister decided to step up the game in intelligence front. By that time India had a foreign information-gathering wing in Intelligence Bureau (IB) but it wasn't successful at all in gathering Intelligence.

So,  by 1968, Indira Gandhi decided to bifurcate IB into two: one specifically designed to gather Intel on foreign lands and relations. RAW was formed,  Kao, then a deputy director in the Intelligence Bureau, was appointed by the prime minister Indira Gandhi the first head of the RAW. In fact, Kao was appointed the role after handling out a blueprint to then Government stating the principle of the agency with a mere 250 hand-picked operatives. Prime Minister decided to grant him authority over this organization with a starting capital of only 2 Crore Rupees.

But this never weighed him down, as he himself would pick all the operatives to run the organization efficiently. Such was his aura, that agents working under him were known as “Kao  boys”!

RAW's biggest victory came in 1971 with independence of Bangladesh. Kao and his team effectively sized up the emerging scenario in what is now Bangladesh with precision. They didn't want to take head-on war with Pakistan, they simply wanted Pakistan to bleed to death. So that they were reluctant to bifurcate Pakistan. Kao and his team framed the idea of India training and equipping the freedom fighters of Mukti Bahini. Operatives were to cross the border, arm the local population and invoke rage among them to take action. RAW even established guerrilla training camps along the border and began to train an illegal army.

In fact, India had so much intelligence that they were able to pin-point the exact location of the room where crucial conversation was taking place. Indian army could simply blow the place off. The Indian Naval Commandos were able to blow up every single Pakistani ship including Gazi, the nuclear submarine, Pakistan had acquired from US.

They even managed to find out about how Pakistan was developing Nuclear weapons with an exact blueprint of the design and the exact precise location.

That was the power of the Kao boys.

After 3 years, he was successful at annexing Sikkim into India. As it was time of Cold War, India being a firm supporter of Soviet and Pakistan taking sides with US, US encouraged Pakistan to contact China to help them take over the state of Sikkim. Like they did with the Tibet. Because if Americans or Chinese got any hold over the region, the security of India could be compromised. Kao sensed it and persuaded Indian government to annex Sikkim and forcibly made the kingdom the 22nd Indian state.

Alexandre de Marenches, erstwhile head of the French external intelligence agency, or SDECE, counted Kao among the top five intelligence chiefs in the world of the 70s.

In fact, Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee, K N Daruwala said:

“His contacts the world over, particularly in Asia—Afghanistan, Iran, China, you name it—were something else. He could move things with just one phone call. He was a team leader who rode out notorious inter-departmental and inter-service rivalries, which is commonplace in India.”

Such was his clout in the sub-continent and Asia in particular.

He then went on to create NSG (National Security Guards), which now comes under one of the finest breed of soldiers in the world. In fact, it was NSG who helped Taj Hotel get rid of the terrorists during the 26/11 attacks.

Even after his retirement, he was rarely seen. In fact, after the retirement, he was photographed only twice. He never wrote a book or even came into the limelight because he had too much on his plate that could compromise India, which he simply won't at any cost.

Mr. R. N. Kao died on 20^th January, 2002.

References:-

1.0 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/raw-founder-chief-r-n-kao-dies/articleshow/263329212.cms

2.0 https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/unsung-heroes-detail.htm?14941

3.0 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/remembering-rn-kao-india-s-legendary-spymaster/story-nVDUr6OaQpdMIR6iFRcWoM.html