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 20th 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
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