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Indira Gandhi planned a mass invasion of Pakistan | CIA Records

A minister of Indira Gandhi's cabinet betrayed India's "war objectives" to the Central Intelligence Agency in December 1971, causing an abrupt end to the Bangladesh war under vicious US armtwisting.

This is the highlight of the book CIA's Eye on South Asia by journalist Anuj Dhar. Published by Delhi-based Manas Publications, which is facing government's ire for coming out with a book on the R&AW, the book compiles declassified CIA records on India and her neighbours. It specifically spotlights what arguably has been India's biggest spy scandal.

In the run up to the 1971 India Pakistan war over what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), The New York Times first hinted at the presence of a CIA operative in the Indian government. By December The Washington Post had reported that US President Richard Nixon's South Asia policy was being guided by "reports from a source close to Mrs. Gandhi."

Records and telecons declassified recently - but not properly explained up till now - show that a dramatic turnaround came on December 6 when a CIA operative, whom Dhar pins down as a minister of the Indira Cabinet, leaked out India's "war objectives" to the agency. Prime Minister Gandhi told Union Cabinet that apart from liberating Bangladesh, India intended to take over a strategically important part of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and go for the total annihilation of Pakistan's armed forces so that Pakistan "never attempts to challenge India in the future."

When he came to know of the CIA report, a furious Nixon blurted out that "this woman [Indira Gandhi] suckered us," thinking that Mrs. Gandhi had promised him that India won't attack East Pakistan - not to speak of targeting West Pakistan and ***. "But let me tell you, she's going to pay," he told his National Security Advisor Dr Henry Kissinger even as he tried to leak out the CIA report to give her bad press.

The CIA went on assess that fulfillment of India's "war objectives" might lead to "the emergence of centrifugal forces which could shatter West Pakistan into as many as three or four separate countries."

As a direct result of the operative's information, the Nixon administration went on an overdrive to save West Pakistan from a massive Indian assault. Because the President felt that "international morality will be finished - the United Nations will be finished - if you adopt the principle that because a country is democratic and big it can do what the hell it pleases."

Nixon personally threatened the USSR with a "major confrontation" between the superpowers should the Soviets failed to stop the Indians from going into West Pakistan. Kissinger secretly met Chinese Permanent Representative at the UN to apprise him of the CIA operative's report and rub in that what India was planning to do with Pakistan with the Soviet backing could turn out to be a "dress rehearsal" of what they might do to China.

Dhar quotes in the book the official records showing that USSR's First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov visited Delhi after Nixon's threat and told the "Indians to confine their objectives to East Pakistan" and "not to try and take any part of West Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir" as "Moscow was concerned about the possibility of a great power confrontation over the subcontinent." Kuznetsov also extracted a guarantee from Prime Minister Gandhi that India will not attack West Pakistan. This decision was promptly conveyed to Nixon. On 16 December 1971 when Nixon was told that India had declared a ceasefire, he exulted: "We have made it… it's the Russians working for us." Kissinger congratulated him for saving West Pakistan - India's main target, as per the operative's report to the CIA.

Dhar repudiates recent assertion by a former Indian Navy chief that showing up of America's biggest nuclear powered carrier into the Bay of Bengal during the war had something to do with the accidental destruction of a US plane in Dhaka during an Indian strafing. "Declassified records make it unambiguously clear that the month-long show of strength by the USS Enterprise and accompanying flotilla was a byproduct of the CIA operative's reports," he writes, reproducing chunks from official records detailing how Nixon ordered a naval task force towards the subcontinent to "scare off" India from attacking West Pakistan.

In subsequent years, former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and two deputy PMs - Jagjivan Ram and Y B Chavan - were alleged to be the CIA operative active during the 1971 war. However, all such charges lacked any substantiation because there was no confirmation whether or not such an operative ever existed. As such no constructive discussion on the issue ever took off. This has changed now given the unassailable evidence in the form of US records making it clear that the CIA had a "reliable" agent operating out of the Indian cabinet in 1971.

In declassified records the name of the operative has been censored because the CIA Director has "statutory obligations to protect from disclosure [the Agency's] intelligence sources." Dhar writes: "Naming the Indian operative even after so many years will adversely impact the Indo-US relations, and hit the Agency's prospects of recruiting new informants."

However, he suggests that Indian government may have known the identity of the operative. "R&AW under the most capable R. N. Kao could not have missed the reference to the 'source close to Mrs. Gandhi' and must have dug deeper," he writes, adding that in 1972 Mrs. Gandhi herself charged that "she had information that the CIA had become active in India".

More pertinently, Dhar quotes from the declassified record of a 5 October 1972 meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh and US Secretary of State William Rogers. During the meeting, Singh asserted that "CIA has been in contact with people in India in 'abnormal ways.'" and that India had information that "proceedings of Congress Working Committee were known to US officials within two hours of meetings".

End the secrecy: CIA Records Take Lid Off High Treason By Indira Cabinet Minister


At the end sikhs annihilated her

7.jpg
 
We know that- we know indian nature and intentions- thats why we maintain aggressive status quo with india- so the war monger indians dont take any lineancy as a sign of weakness and execute a mass invasion-
 
Pakistani seem so scared of a woman that's been dead for decades. I thought they wanted to follow Islam which is supposed to teach respect for dead and living.
You coward Indian-American,
Pakistan is the only country in this world who suffering and fighting against terrorisam against these following countries:
USA
India
Afghanistan
Iran

All these countries supporting terror against Pakistan. And Pakistan lost 65.000,- since 9/11 happened! That happened WAR ON TERROR.

India are so coward in this world that even their schools, collages and universaties even got subjacts "How to blame Pakistan"

A little blast in India then, all Indians crying like little baby.:disagree:
 
You coward Indian-American,
Pakistan is the only country in this world who suffering and fighting against terrorisam against these following countries:
USA
India
Afghanistan
Iran

All these countries supporting terror against Pakistan. And Pakistan lost 65.000,- since 9/11 happened! That happened WAR ON TERROR.

India are so coward in this world that even their schools, collages and universaties even got subjacts "How to blame Pakistan"

A little blast in India then, all Indians crying like little baby.:disagree:

Blasts are not common in India, no ,? We are usually peaceful and progressive, that's why even a little blast makes us cry like little babies:(.
"Pakistan is only country in this world who suffering and fighting against terrorisam" WHY?? Do you have any clue?:)
 
Blasts are not common in India, no ,? We are usually peaceful and progressive, that's why even a little blast makes us cry like little babies:(.
"Pakistan is only country in this world who suffering and fighting against terrorisam" WHY?? Do you have any clue?:)
We know all about how "PEACEFUL" you Indians are :lol:
 
You coward Indian-American,
Pakistan is the only country in this world who suffering and fighting against terrorisam against these following countries:
USA
India
Afghanistan
Iran

All these countries supporting terror against Pakistan. And Pakistan lost 65.000,- since 9/11 happened! That happened WAR ON TERROR.

India are so coward in this world that even their schools, collages and universaties even got subjacts "How to blame Pakistan"

A little blast in India then, all Indians crying like little baby.:disagree:

your own government leaders and military and press have admitted that Pakistan sponsors terrorists. Your own government only 10 days ago published national action plan against terrorism which clearly identifies how Pakistan's madrassas are creating terrorists.

and here you are blaming everyone else! Your country wants our money, gets upset when don't give it and still you call us cowards!

get a grip on reality.
 
your own government leaders and military and press have admitted that Pakistan sponsors terrorists. Your own government only 10 days ago published national action plan against terrorism which clearly identifies how Pakistan's madrassas are creating terrorists.

and here you are blaming everyone else! Your country wants our money, gets upset when don't give it and still you call us cowards!

get a grip on reality.
Are you sure Indian-American?
 
@cruiser - what are you unsure about? the moneys given to Pakistan in aid and material runs into tens of billions!
 
Pres. Nixon was a staunch anti-Communist and his opposition with India was largely due to the fact that India was an ally of the Soviet Union. I don't know whether Nixon was pro-Pakistan but he was definitely in support of Pakistan during his tenure in the early 70's.
 
but a Sikh bodyguard invaded her body with multiple bullets lol


Indira_Gandhi_assassination.jpg



@waz @BATMAN @batmannow please forgive me I cant find a better picture



OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :laugh:

Nixon did say she was going to pay, who would have thought it was through the hands that once swore to defend her. How the mighty fell.

the witch got what was coming to her.....the last few moments of her rule consisted of emergency rule, panic and no light at the end of the tunnel

that is her legacy
 
Exactly that was epic! :D ...... moreover, if you look closely enough (with a little bit imagination), you'll see her face upwards with her final words "haye bhagwan, Pakistan nay marwa diya"! :cheesy:

even got her glasses as they were falling off her face towards the ground :laugh:

what a detail :laugh:
 
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