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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Mitrokhin revelations silly, say Indian spies |
| 2005-09-20 |
| Amid the raging controversy on the just-released Mitrokhin Archive II; The KGB and the World authored by Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin, serving and retired officials of intelligence agencies alternated between amusement and denials. While none of them disagreed that there was always some amount of "activity" on the lines of what Mitrokhin suggested, most feel that the names that have emerged so far could not have been involved. Retired joint director of the Intelligence Bureau, M.K. Dhar, who has authored exposes of the intelligence community's activities, says "accusing Promode Dasgupta of being on the IB's payroll amounts to blasphemy". Dhar, who knew the former secretary of the Bengal Communist Party in his personal capacity, said " Promode Dasgupta was a man who had no home, no family. He lived in Alimuddin Street in the most austere manner. There was no sign of affluence about him. He could not have been on the payroll of any intelligence organization. Dasgupta was a real revolutionary. Anyone who casts doubt on him must produce proof as I can state from person knowledge that he was a very honest person". Dhar similarly rubbishes allegations that the CIA funded former PM Indira Gandhi, "It is a matter of record that Mrs G did use the communists to stabilise her government and negotiate with Moscow, but for anyone to say that she directly received material benefit from any quarter is ridiculous," he told HT. Former Intelligence Bureau director, V.G. Vaidya, now in Pune, was unwilling to comment on the allegations since he had not read the book. He, however, said, "Anyone can write anything. It does not mean that the world has to accept it as Gospel truth. One must remember that American author Seymour Hersh had written that Morarji Desai was on the CIA payroll when he (Desai) was Indira Gandhi's deputy. But then Morarji Desai sued him," Vaidya recalled. Serving intelligence officials are, similarly, dismissive about the Mitrokhin book. A few admitted that they wanted to read the book "out of curiosity" but maintained that the allegations publicised so far appeared to lack credibility. "These things do take place. Agencies routinely pay people who can access information in a foreign country. But to suggest that Mrs Gandhi was taking money is downright stupidity," said one official. Another official was more forthright. "If a serving Prime Minister needs money, there is no dearth of means to get it. Why would any PM, let alone a dynamic person like Mrs Gandhi, run the risk of taking money from a foreign power?" |
| Posted by:john |