SR 71 Blackbird
BANNED
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 793
- Reaction score
- 0
The day media turned a patriot into a traitor.
V. Balachandran,former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat
On 10 April 1983, a Bombay newspaper, once the leader of the city's fourth estate, announced with a banner headline, "India's Top Spy Missing: Biggest escape since Philby-US suspected destination, panic in ruling party". The paper's New Delhi correspondent reported that Naushervan Framji Suntook, India's "master spy", head of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), had "defected to an as yet unknown country with some super sensitive documents". It mentioned that the passenger manifest revealed that he and his wife took a flight on 30 March to the United States. The report quoted a senior intelligence officer saying that "Santook's defection" was "conclusive evidence of a major penetration of the country's counter-intelligence by an as yet unknown foreign espionage network". It further said, "While almost all that RAW did and had, would now be the property of the country of adoption of Santook, according to this intelligence officer, nothing like this in the cloak and dagger world had happened anywhere since the defection of British MI 6 double agent Kim Philby over two decades ago."
This "defector" spy was the late Noshir Framji Suntook, a former naval officer who joined the Indian Police Service after Independence. In the early 1950s, while working in Bombay Presidency, he volunteered to serve on the unpopular Andaman Islands where he did pioneering work in befriending the remote "Jarawa" tribe, instead of following the traditionally hostile police policy.
In 1957, he opted to go to the Northeast by joining the Indian Frontier Administrative Service (IFAS), successor to the British Indian Political Service. He soon learnt the complexities of that region. In 1968, the legendary R.N. Kao chose him to head an important wing when he set up our foreign intelligence department (RAW). In 1977, Suntook was selected by Prime Minister Morarji Desai to head RAW after a major purge following Indira Gandhi's defeat in 1977. He then became the second longest serving RAW chief (1977-1983). During this period he frustrated a surreptitious move by some elements in our foreign ministry, who, by taking advantage of the inexperience of the Janata government, tried to persuade them to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty against India's traditional stand (The Sunday Guardian, 19 September 2010).
It was testimony of his apolitical service integrity that Indira Gandhi chose to retain him in this sensitive assignment after storming back into power in January 1980, although he had worked closely with her political rivals. Suntook was to retire from service on 31 March 1983. He was to hand over charge to Girish Chandra "Gary" Saxena, later governor of Jammu and Kashmir. However, just before the formal transfer of charge, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received an SOS from the head of a friendly foreign government.
He was suspecting a possible coup instigated by foreign powers and wanted very discreet advice on how to counter it. The situation was grave. He could not trust his own agencies and chose to turn to India. Indira Gandhi thought only Suntook could give that effective advice in such a crisis. Thus he had to fly out to that country, cancelling his transfer of charge. Fertile brains in some sections of the bureaucracy and in an equally ill informed media chose to impute motives.
When Suntook returned to New Delhi on 12 April, after completing this successful assignment, he did not realise the storm his hurried secret departure had caused in Parliament despite an official statement by the then Home Minister P.C. Sethi that he had gone abroad on duty. Suntook told me that he was pained that even leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who knew him well, had tried to make political capital out of the Prime Minister's inability to reveal the truth. He told me that he did not get a satisfactory answer from Vajpayee when he met him on his return. Neither did he get any apology from the media. What a way to treat a patriot!
In later years, Suntook would be appointed as member, Minority Commission and was also to be involved in secret talks with Naga rebels in 1988. BBC correspondent Subir Bhowmik had said that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi chose him because of his deep knowledge of our Northeast problems.
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/the-day-media-turned-a-patriot-into-a-traitor
V. Balachandran,former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat
On 10 April 1983, a Bombay newspaper, once the leader of the city's fourth estate, announced with a banner headline, "India's Top Spy Missing: Biggest escape since Philby-US suspected destination, panic in ruling party". The paper's New Delhi correspondent reported that Naushervan Framji Suntook, India's "master spy", head of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), had "defected to an as yet unknown country with some super sensitive documents". It mentioned that the passenger manifest revealed that he and his wife took a flight on 30 March to the United States. The report quoted a senior intelligence officer saying that "Santook's defection" was "conclusive evidence of a major penetration of the country's counter-intelligence by an as yet unknown foreign espionage network". It further said, "While almost all that RAW did and had, would now be the property of the country of adoption of Santook, according to this intelligence officer, nothing like this in the cloak and dagger world had happened anywhere since the defection of British MI 6 double agent Kim Philby over two decades ago."
This "defector" spy was the late Noshir Framji Suntook, a former naval officer who joined the Indian Police Service after Independence. In the early 1950s, while working in Bombay Presidency, he volunteered to serve on the unpopular Andaman Islands where he did pioneering work in befriending the remote "Jarawa" tribe, instead of following the traditionally hostile police policy.
In 1957, he opted to go to the Northeast by joining the Indian Frontier Administrative Service (IFAS), successor to the British Indian Political Service. He soon learnt the complexities of that region. In 1968, the legendary R.N. Kao chose him to head an important wing when he set up our foreign intelligence department (RAW). In 1977, Suntook was selected by Prime Minister Morarji Desai to head RAW after a major purge following Indira Gandhi's defeat in 1977. He then became the second longest serving RAW chief (1977-1983). During this period he frustrated a surreptitious move by some elements in our foreign ministry, who, by taking advantage of the inexperience of the Janata government, tried to persuade them to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty against India's traditional stand (The Sunday Guardian, 19 September 2010).
It was testimony of his apolitical service integrity that Indira Gandhi chose to retain him in this sensitive assignment after storming back into power in January 1980, although he had worked closely with her political rivals. Suntook was to retire from service on 31 March 1983. He was to hand over charge to Girish Chandra "Gary" Saxena, later governor of Jammu and Kashmir. However, just before the formal transfer of charge, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received an SOS from the head of a friendly foreign government.
He was suspecting a possible coup instigated by foreign powers and wanted very discreet advice on how to counter it. The situation was grave. He could not trust his own agencies and chose to turn to India. Indira Gandhi thought only Suntook could give that effective advice in such a crisis. Thus he had to fly out to that country, cancelling his transfer of charge. Fertile brains in some sections of the bureaucracy and in an equally ill informed media chose to impute motives.
When Suntook returned to New Delhi on 12 April, after completing this successful assignment, he did not realise the storm his hurried secret departure had caused in Parliament despite an official statement by the then Home Minister P.C. Sethi that he had gone abroad on duty. Suntook told me that he was pained that even leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who knew him well, had tried to make political capital out of the Prime Minister's inability to reveal the truth. He told me that he did not get a satisfactory answer from Vajpayee when he met him on his return. Neither did he get any apology from the media. What a way to treat a patriot!
In later years, Suntook would be appointed as member, Minority Commission and was also to be involved in secret talks with Naga rebels in 1988. BBC correspondent Subir Bhowmik had said that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi chose him because of his deep knowledge of our Northeast problems.
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/the-day-media-turned-a-patriot-into-a-traitor
