Can ex-spy chiefs troubleshoot? Ask Cong

The UPA government too made two quick appointments soon after taking over. First, it enlisted M K Narayanan, another former IB director and a trusted security official of the late Rajiv Gandhi, into the National Security Agency who became the NSA after the death of J N Dixit. Its second appointment was T V Rajeswar, sent to the crucial state of UP.

Last month, yet another IB boss, E S L Narasimhan, was made Governor of Chhattisgarh, barely weeks after his retirement, to help tackle the Naxal problem in the BJP-ruled state.

The Congress8217;s penchant for ace snoops goes back to the late Indira Gandhi who inherited Jawaharlal Nehru8217;s handpicked intelligence chief, the late R N Kao, the founder of R038;AW. Kao8217;s proximity to Indira is part of intelligence folklore 8212; his was always the last appointment of the day for Indira, and he was part of her PMO8217;s inner group . Kao walked away quietly when the Morarji Desai government came to power 8212;- the Janata leaders had accused Indira of spying on them 8212;- only to come back as special security advisor after Indira returned to power in 1980. He served Rajiv Gandhi too. He was the quintessential undercover agent 8212;- intensely private, photographed only twice.

Kao8217;s successors, however, have not been so media-shy. Take the high-profile Girish Chandra 8216;Gary8217; Saxena, the R038;AW chief who retired in March 1986 and went on to become the Governor of J-K. He served under both Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narasimha Rao.

The man currently in the hotseat, UP Governor Rajeswar, slipped into his new role almost as soon as he retired in 1983. By 1990, he had been in Raj Bhavans in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal.