IB146;s Open Secrets

There are innumerable escapades narrated by M.K. Dhar in his latest book Open Secrets but here are some which provide a never-before insight into the functioning of the organisation:

8226; 1985, RAW RECRUITS AN IB HAND. Dhar narrates how he was given an 8216;8216;open8217;8217; assignment of handling the information and publicity desk in the Indian mission in Ottawa but also handled sensitive intelligence gathering tasks. He said functioning of the RAW staff posted in Ottawa was in complete disarray and the cover of two operatives was easily ripped off. He reported the developments to the Cabinet Secretariat during home leave but the officers were not recalled.

Eventually, the Canadian government officially declared the entire RAW contingent there as persona non grata and asked for their withdrawal. It was then that Dhar says he realised his own private secretary, Shyamsundar, too was declared a PNG. 8216;8216;I probed into the matter and was surprised to know that Shyamsunder was bought over by Sundar Kumar a RAW official at a monthly fee of C400. He religiously passed on to his extra-departmental employer copies of all Intelligence documents that I dictated to him.8217;8217;

8226; 1988, ABBASI8217;s ARREST AND ENSUING HUMILIATION. This episode follows Dhar8217;s joining the IB8217;s sensitive Pakistan Counter-Intelligence Unit PCIU.Three days after joining he was told the Military Attache of the Pakistan High Commission was ready to be picked up for his espionage activities. Dhar said he advised some delay but was told that orders from the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were explicit. A trap was laid for Brigadier Zaheer Abbasi on November 30 and in the ensuing scuffle, received 8216;8216;a few blows8217;8217; from some IB officials.

8216;8216;It was unfortunate that one of my colleagues had used unacceptable language and body force against Abbasi even inside the confines of the police post. It was definitely against diplomatic protocol,8217;8217; writes Dhar and goes on to chronicle how the official media was informed about the arrest even before the Pakistanis were searched and interrogated. The handouts were prepared by 8216;8216;someone8217;8217; in the PMO.

The same night, Dhar writes, he was hauled up by the PM and his aides, in front of his director M.K. Narayanan. 8216;8216;I was grilled by a house-full of aides of the PM. Such incidents are unheard of in Intelligence parlance. Standing before the PM, I developed a feeling that the ground was slipping from under my feet.8217;8217;

8226; 1994, FINALLY, THE IB8217;S VERSION OF THE ISRO SPY CASE. The mishandling of the ISRO case has been the subject of a lot of mudslinging between the IB and the CBI, to whom the Government had handed over the probe. Dhar was the IB8217;s point-man for the case but says he was unwilling to give his case papers to the CBI, only to be overruled by the then director, D.C. Pathak.

A decade after the incident, Dhar writes: 8216;8216;Pathak drafted a rather lengthy report by himself and wanted to attach the 8216;in house working sheet8217; with it8230;I objected. It was a crude work sheet for internal use. He again vetoed my arguments. The deadly working sheet that included the name of Prabhakar Rao, son of the Prime Minister, was shot off along with the main report8230;soon after the report was received in the PMO, hell broke loose.8217;8217;

Dhar hints that the ISRO case did not collapse but was made to collapse. He states at the end of the ISRO chapter in his book: 8216;8216;Once the name of the PM figured in the IB report, the entire Government machinery was made to ridicule and destroy the collage put together by the joint interrogation team. But the ISRO case had not acted as my nemesis. I was born to be bullied.8217;8217;