Why did NDA keep spy scandal under wraps? asks PM’s security pointman

Rabinder Singh’s disappearance case was first reported in The Indian Express and in a detailed interview with this newspaper, Narayanan has now elaborated upon the pitfalls of the Vajpayee Government holding back action against the Joint Secretary until after announcement of election results.

‘‘Of course, it was a delayed action. They say they suspected something for five to six months… catching a spy is good news. If a Government has discovered something and there is a risk of it coming out, why did they keep it under wraps? Elections were not the reason. Clearly there was some (other) reason why action was not taken.’’

Narayanan said even three months after Singh’s disappearance, the R&AW hasn’t been able to provide answers to some crucial questions.‘‘In my view, the real issues are: why was Rabinder Singh so important and secondly, if something was amiss why were people so unwilling to take action? I have asked these questions to people in the R&AW and they say they don’t know the answers.’’

The security Advisor admitted that the episode had hit the morale of the external intelligence agency and that one of the things he was aiming to do was to prevent it from ‘‘impinging on the capability of the organisation.’’

He said that the on-going review of intelligence agencies was being done after formal authorisation from the PM. ‘‘There are a lot of things we will toss up. One think I already see is that there is a breakdown of very, very rigid and strict rules. That is why a man like Rabinder Singh could get away with a lot.’’