Intelligence failure

Be very,very careful in exposing intelligence agencies to anything even remotely like partisan politics

Be very,very careful in exposing intelligence agencies to anything even remotely like partisan politics

The Intelligence Bureau is being subjected to a harsh scrutiny over the question of IB special director Rajendra Kumars role in the encounter killing of 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in June 2004. According to the Gujarat police,the four were killed on the basis of reliable information from the IB that they were LeT terrorists,plotting to kill senior BJP leaders,including Narendra Modi. It is now widely suspected,and claimed by the CBI,that they were kidnapped before they were shot dead,and that Rajendra Kumar had deliberately orchestrated the fake encounter. They have questioned the source of his inputs,and alleged that they were meant to enable the killing. The timing of this pointed questioning on Ishrat Jahan is problematic,though,mainly because there is so much partisan politics in the air. Has the Centre considered the possible consequences of exposing the IB to investigation so unprecedentedly? It could touch off a chain reaction,recklessly open up the conduct and remit of intelligence agencies to selective and motivated questioning.

The IB cannot be expected to lay bare its sources,given the highly sensitive and delicate nature of its work. It carries out missions that are necessarily kept secret,and around the world,intelligence agencies enjoy certain protections to enable them to best fulfil their responsibilities. Any decision to undo that would require the most careful consideration at the very top,shorn of all politics. In this case,Ishrat Jahan was acknowledged by the LeT as one of its own,though it later retracted the statement. The circumstances surrounding these deaths are still mysterious and questionable. Investigations are on and no conclusion has been reached yet.

Fake encounters are patently wrong. But this is not the first time those suspected of being terrorists have been killed in covert encounters. Such deaths have occurred under successive political regimes. And yet the institutional workings of the intelligence and security agencies have remained unchanged. If this problem is to be addressed,and if that entails revising the IBs charter,it must be done in a way that is more clearly and impartially thought through,after assessing the consequences and dangers,instead of singling it out in one case. Particularly when an implication can be drawn that it may suit the UPA to discredit a particular state government at this point. Using Ishrat Jahans death to turn a harsh light on the IBs workings is a complex idea and we would like to believe that whatever approach is finally followed receives consideration at the very top,and is cleared by the prime minister himself.