New Delhi, February 6
A former Intelligence Bureau (IB) official has stressed the need for invoking Acts of Parliament and constitutional modifications for making the intelligence and investigating agencies accountable to the supreme constitutional bodies of the nation.
Mr M.K. Dhar has said in his recently launched book “Open Secrets: India’s Intelligence Unveiled” that these agencies, both in the Centre and the states, should be made accountable to Parliament directly and not through standing committees for the controlling ministries.
The author also opined that the Government of India should have a second look into the ISRO espionage case and order a fresh discreet evaluation of the evidences, investigation procedures and conclusions reached by the CBI. Mr Dhar said the prestigious ISRO agency should not be left to the mercies of certain individuals and self- seeking politicians.
The publishers claim that the book is the first bold attempt by a former official of the Indian intelligence fraternity which tells how the intelligence agencies intervene in domestic political matters.
The book also attempts to answer the following questions:
1. What was the role of National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan when he was the Director of IB? Has he proved a spineless boss and self-serving officer when he did not stand by his junior officer (author) before the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a Pakistan spy bust case?
2. Who bugged former President of India Giani Zail Singh? How the IB planted devices inside Rashtrapati Bhavan when Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh had developed hostility?
3. How Indira Gandhi used the IB as a political tool? Who asked the IB to plant monitoring devices inside the PM’s phone during VP Singh’s regime and probably apprise of all happenings to Rajiv Gandhi?
4. Who smuggled arms inside the Golden Temple? Who asked the IB to keep surveillance on Maneka Gandhi?
5. Who assigned the IB to monitor the goings-on in the “parallel PMO” with cronies of Sanjay Gandhi running from 1, Akbar Road, which was opposed to Mr R.K. Dhawan? How the IB helps politicians to change government?
6. How Rajiv Gandhi worked on “Punjab peace policy”, guided by Capt Satish Sharma, Buta Singh, Mr K.P.S. Gill and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala? How the IB was confronted by Buta Singh as to how 69 “unlicensed and unauthorised” weapons were supplied by the IB? Did Buta Singh and Giani Zail Singh block Rajiv Gandhi’s efforts to solve Punjab crisis for their own political interests?
7. Who made the IB a “dirty tricks department” of the government of the day? How in February 1992 a meeting of RSS/BJP, attended by senior leaders, was videotaped where blueprint was prepared for destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya?
8. How the NDA government asked the author to accept a job in the PMO for digging out alleged cases of corruption of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi?
