NEW DELHI: Indian intelligence and security agencies must keep an eye on current domestic and foreign organizations.
Friends, competitors, or adversarial countries have always kept an eye on India’s elections.
In the 1970s and 1980s, amid the confrontation of communist ideology, liberal economies were actively engaged. Subsequently, Pakistan and some Islamic countries began utilizing certain parties and organizations for their own interests. With the advancement of India’s economic and political capabilities, China has attempted to weave its web akin to American clandestine agency CIA and Russian agency GRU. This is why discussions are emerging about suspicious organizations and their activities, foreign funding, and violent activities impacting electoral politics from the era of Jawaharlal Nehru to that of Narendra Modi, particularly during the Lok Sabha elections and against the ruling BJP.
Interestingly, leaders of the Congress or other parties who used to raise their voice against such foreign powers during their reign, now deem such concerns raised by the Modi government and BJP leaders as baseless. This raises the question of whether foreign powers and intelligence agencies are supporting various political parties or affiliated organizations for their own interests. Whether it be arms deals, Maoist-Naxal activities in mineral-rich states, or under the guise of farmer protests, incursions by anti-India Khalistani elements, or international influence on Indian industrial business groups, the vigilant eye of foreign “vultures” remains on the strong majority government at the Centre. Weak coalitions favour foreign powers as their decisions can be influenced through various means.
In this context, the Indian intelligence and security agencies must keep an eye on current domestic and foreign organizations. But on this issue, veteran journalists like us can draw attention to past records. In the 1970s and 1980s, information about the influence and funding of Indian political parties by the Soviet Russian intelligence agency KGB and the American intelligence agency CIA was revealed by agents and politicians of these countries themselves through books. For instance, in a former senior officer’s book in the KGB, it was revealed that the Russian agency declared India’s government as the “KGB’s success model in the Third World”.
According to the former chief of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, cash suitcases were sent for her party, but there was no mention of large amounts of money being given to the CPI. However, there was criticism and opposition from the Congress and leftists. When the Mitrokhin Archive was published in 1999, the book created a tsunami in Western intelligence circles due to the thousands of copied KGB files providing official and detailed information. The story of the author Vasili Mitrokhin was more intriguing. He fled to Britain in 1992, bringing along a treasure trove of top-secret KGB documents that he had been hiding for years. His defection from his country and leaving behind his homeland and offspring was considered one of the clandestine turnarounds of the 20th century, and his archival material was authenticated by the CIA and the British intelligence agency MI5.
Christopher Andrew and co-author Sequel, focused on the KGB’s activities in India and other parts of the world in their book. The thesis of the book was that the Soviet Union decided that the Third World was the area where it could win the covert Cold War. Two chapters with titles specifically related to India describe the scale of KGB operations and the limits of its influence in India. The book claimed that during the Cold War, the KGB made the most operational efforts in any country of the Third World in India, and during the 1970s, the number of KGB agents in India was the largest outside the Soviet Union. More sensational revelations are included in the book.
Congress continued to deny the allegations, but the book stated, “Indira Gandhi, referred to as VANO by the KGB, received cash suitcases for the Congress treasury. On one occasion, the Congress (R) received a secret gift of 2 million rupees personally from the then KGB chief, Leonid Shebarshin, in India. On the same occasion, a newspaper supporting Mrs. Gandhi was also given ten lakh rupees.” In 1978, the KGB was operating more than 30 agents in India, including 10 Indian intelligence officers. In 1977, KGB files identified 21 non-communist politicians (including four central ministers) whose election campaigns were assisted by the KGB.
In 1959, CPI Secretary-General Ajoy Ghosh agreed to establish a trading import-export business with the Soviet bloc. Within less than a decade, its annual profit increased to more than Rs 30 lakh. During 1975, a total of 10.6 million rubles were spent on active measures designed to strengthen support for Mrs Gandhi and weaken her political opponents in India. V. Krishna Menon was approved by the Soviet to purchase MiGs as Defence Minister. Their election campaigns in 1962 and 1967 were financed by the KGB. By 1973, there were 10 Indian newspapers and one news agency on the KGB’s payroll. During 1975, the KGB had 5,510 articles published in Indian newspapers to create a favorable environment for their ideas and organizations. Roughly estimated, some journalists began to receive lakhs of rupees during that period with limited income.
In India, questions were raised about whether the authors had sensationalized the espionage story. CPI Secretary-General A.B. Bardhan said, “This is an attempt to defame.” However, in Washington, including the Cold War International History Project, there are many sources and books on international history, including India’s portrayal of the KGB’s operations. Former KGB officers, including Shebarshin, who lived in Delhi, have described its operations in India in their memoirs. Former IB director M.K. Dhar wrote in his book “Open Secrets” that the IB “succeeded in identifying four central ministers (in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet) and more than a dozen MPs who were on the KGB’s payroll.” He wrote that “the most surprising area of KGB influence was the defence ministry and the layers of the armed forces responsible for military procurement.”
In the 1950s and 1960s, KGB operations expanded rapidly in India. It is known from the book that an Indian diplomat in the embassy in Moscow was recruited through a classic honey trap, in which a female KGB agent cooperated with the tempting codename Navrova.
In another comment by former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, it is said, “It seemed as if the whole country was for sale: the KGB and the CIA had penetrated deep into the Indian government.” Not only the government, but the book also accused the KGB of recruiting one of India’s most influential journalists. Their anti-American writings were considered a major turning point. However, they also had other ways of inflaming anti-American sentiments.
According to the Mitrokhin Archives in 1969, Andropov informed the Politburo in Moscow that they could organize a demonstration of 20,000 Muslims in front of the US Embassy in Delhi, and it would cost 5,000 rupees. I request your opinion.” Leonid Brezhnev wrote, “Andropov’s request is approved.” Probably for the first time in the elections of the 1980s, there was a significant flow of money from Islamic countries. An interesting fact was that Libya was a major funder. Support was given only to Muslim parties like the Muslim League, but other major parties were also included through indirect beneficiaries in the form of leaders with large Muslim followings.
America was not far behind. The PL 480 funds, intended for food aid, were extensively used by the CIA for covert activities in India. According to experts, some of the major “fronts” used in the past for CIA activities included the Dharma Trust, the American Institute for Indian Studies, the American Agricultural Research Service, and the US Educational Foundation of India. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, former active CIA agent in Asia, Thomas Brandon, revealed that the CIA had also “used naval associations in Indian ports.”
American author Thomas Powers wrote in his book that the CIA recruited a member of Indira Gandhi’s cabinet as an agent in 1971. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Powers stated in his book “The Man Who Kept the Secrets” that during a crucial phase of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, vital information was being provided by a member of Mrs. Gandhi’s cabinet to the CIA. It was speculated that the minister’s contact with the CIA was Jane Abel, who was a former official at the American consulate in Bombay and later at the American embassy in New Delhi.
In recent years, China has begun to influence espionage and political activities through its agencies and commercial activities. Pakistan’s ISI and Chinese agencies have spread their nets in recent years. Some spies associated with them have also been caught and are in jail. Therefore, it is necessary for the government and society to remain vigilant against such anti-India elements and take strict legal action against them in a timely manner.