VEEKAYS’ NEWSLETTER – 2013
Dear Friends,
Another
year has rolled past. At our age, another year may not bring about any
perceptible change in our lives. But for a child, a year is quite large span of
time. When we see our grandchildren operating ipads, connecting with their
friends on Facebook and teaching us how to handle the latest android, we
suddenly realise that we have grown older. Sometimes, I am left wonderstruck at
the speed at which they learn. When we were eight or nine years old, we were
not allowed to touch the gramophone or the radio set in the house. The kids look
at us with disbelief when we tell them that we had no TV, transistor radios,
air conditioners, gas stoves and microwave ovens. The only source of music was
the gramophone, which one had to wind up manually. On Wednesdays, the whole
family gathered round the radio, to listen to the Binaca geetmala on Radio Ceylon, compered by Amin Sayani.
Like
the last six years, a considerable portion of my time in 2013 was spent in
visits to various courts and clinics. To refresh memories, the case filed
against me pertains to my book India’s External Intelligence – Secrets of
the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), which was published in June
2007. The case is yet to start and I now
feel that the CBI, having realised that there is no evidence, is not really
interested in pursuing it. In fact, the CBI lawyer is quite happy to prolong it
as long as he can – he gets paid for every hearing. I have begun to realise
that this is the main reason for such cases dragging on for years. The cases
are given to lawyers who are related to or have a nexus with officials in the prosecuting
agencies, such as CBI, Police etc, for whom it becomes a perpetual source of
regular income. Another reason for the
long time taken in deciding cases is the fact that almost 100 cases are listed
before the judge, in the High Court as well as the subordinate courts. It is impossible
for any judge to devote adequate time to each case, and adjournments are granted
even before they are asked for.
In
addition to the case filed against me in the court of the CMM, and the one
filed in the High Court to quash the proceedings, which Prashant Bhushan is handling,
there are several others in the High Court and lower courts, stemming from cases
filed by me, requesting for similar action against the authors of books and
articles that I have used as reference material for my book and against the
corrupt officials of RAW and SPG mentioned in my book. Compared to the previous year, there were fewer
hearings this year - 16 in the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, 16 in
the High Court, four in the Information Commission and seven in the consumer
forums. There is also a case in the Supreme Court, which is not directly
connected to my own case.
Last
year, a case PIL was filed in the Supreme Court regarding the intelligence
agencies – IB, RAW and NTRO- which are in fact functioning without any
constitutional mandate, since none of them were created by an Act of
Parliament. There is no parliamentary or judicial oversight and their funds are
not audited. I had worked on this for almost two years and the draft was
revised several times, in consultation with Prashant Bhushan, before it was
filed in December 2012, on behalf of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation
(CPIL). The then Chief Justice, Altamas Kabir, was most reluctant to admit it
and raised trivial technical objections on three occasions before it was admitted
in the fourth hearing on 11 February 2013.
A notice was issued to the Government to reply within six weeks. The MHA
has filed the reply on 12 November, after nine months. The reply was entirely
along expected lines, claiming that the organisations were not illegal, even if
they had not been created by an Act or Ordinance. However, some very interesting facts have
come to light:-
·
The IB was created by a
telegram dated 23/12/1887 from the Viscount Cross, the Secretary of State in
London, to Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy in India, granting approval to a proposal
to ‘collect secret and political intelligence in India’.
·
The RAW was formed on 12/09/1968
through an Office Memorandum, signed by the then Cabinet Secretary, DS Joshi.
It was established as a wing of the Cabinet Secretariat and no Gazette
Notification was issued on the subject. (Incidentally, the OM uses the
abbreviation RAW, while everyone serving in that agency insists that the
correct abbreviation is R&AW).
·
The expenditure on the
head of RAW and his personal staff is met from the budget of the Cabinet
Secretariat. The remaining expenditure, including that on cover posts in
foreign countries, is met from the general budget of the MEA. For audit
purposes, a certificate of proper utilisation is furnished by the Cabinet
Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, who then certifies the utilisation of the
entire amount. (This is akin to a CO giving a certificate to a company
commander).
·
The NTFO (later
designated as the NTRO) was created vide a Cabinet Secretariat Notification
dated 15/4/2004.
·
The budget of the NTRO
is embedded in the overall budget of the MHA. An officer of the CAG posted to
NTRO on deputation supervises the internal audit. There is no external audit.
In
our petition, I had mentioned that the concept paper for the creation of RAW
was written by Lt Gen MN Batra, who was then the DMI. I have written about this
my book INDIA’S EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE. Naturally, I had written this after
discussions with Gen MN Batra, who went through the draft. This has been
contradicted by the MHA, which claims that the blue print for the agency was
submitted by RN Kao, then Deputy Director in the IB, and became the first
Director of RAW. I am not surprised, because they rarely give credit to others
even when there is documentary evidence to the contrary. According Gen Batra,
the IB was not happy about the creation of RAW, as it resulted in curtailment
of their powers as well as size. Until then, IB was responsible for external as
well as internal intelligence. With the creation of RAW, external intelligence
went out of their domain. Hence, their claim that RN Kao was responsible for
the creation of RAW does not appear to be valid.
The
genesis of the decision to create RAW lay in the 1962 conflict with China, when
Indian intelligence failed to detect the Chinese build-up for the attack. Brig
(later Lt Gen)
MN Batra, who was then the DMI, recalls that he
faced a lot of flak on this account and had quite a job explaining to everyone
that the responsibility for strategic military intelligence across the border
lay with the IB and not the Army. He argued that there was an urgent need to
for an external intelligence agency and convinced the COAS, Gen JN Choudhury. Accompanied
by Batra, Choudhury visited the UK and USA to see the functioning of their
intelligence agencies. On their return, Batra was asked to write a paper on the
subject.
MN
Batra’s paper, which proposed the establishment of a foreign intelligence
agency under the MOD, was put up to the PM through the Defence Minister, YB
Chavan. She approved the creation of the agency, but decided to keep it under
her own control instead of the MOD, as recommended in the paper. Incidentally,
MN Batra was the DMI for 10 years, from 1961 to 1971. During this time, his
cousin, Maj Gen (later Lt Gen) RN Batra was the Signal-Officer-in-Chief, from
1961 to 1966.
Another activity that I
am involved with is the History of the Corps of Signals, Volume III, covering
the period 1947-72, which I wrote between 2007 and 2010. It was formally
released during the centenary celebrations of the Corps in February at Jabalpur
in February 2011, but has still to be printed. Frankly, it has been a
frustrating experience. For the last three years, the book has been going up
and down, between three directorates – Signals, MI and MO. Now, it is not MI
but MO that is dragging its feet. Last week, they have returned the manuscript
again (for the umpteenth time), with some observations, including a few that
pertain to the 1947-48 Kashmir operations!
The way things are going we may find history repeating itself – Volume
I, written by Brig Tery Baretto in 1965, was published in 1975, ten years
later.
The problem with my
right eye still persists, with very little hope of improvement. As mentioned in
my last newsletter, I had suffered from a haemorrhage in my retina in 2011,
technically called BRVO. Even after nine injections – Avastin, Lucentis and
Macugen – there is little improvement. An infected injection administered in RR
Hospital caused almost total loss of vision, necessitating a PPV (pars plana
vitrectomy). It was finally controlled with steroids, which have created other
problems - increase in eye pressure and blood sugar levels. I still visit the
RR Hospital and Shroff Eye Centre about once a month for check-ups. The left
eye is also developing a cataract but I have been asked to delay its removal
till the right eye shows some improvement.
This year, we decided to go to Kashmir for our
annual sojourn to the hills. I had served in J&K as the DAA&QMG of a
brigade in 1978-79, but my daughter was then only a toddler and her own
children had never seen Kashmir. The initial plan was for everyone to travel by
air. But my son-in-law, Vaibhav, who is in the merchant navy, was very keen to
do trip by road. Finally, the party was split in two – Kumud, Mauravi and her
two daughters, Mriggya and Eshaana - decided to go by air, while Vaibhav and I
went by road. To ensure that we reached before the girls arrived, we started a
day earlier in my Innova. Starting early in the morning, we reached Udhampur in
the evening at about 2000 hrs. We should have made it at least two hours
earlier, but we missed the road to Pathankot at Jalandhar and reached Amritsar,
from where we went via Gurdaspur. So, instead of 670 Km we had to do about 750
Km. Starting after breakfast next morning we made the remaining 240 Km to
Srinagar in the afternoon, well in time for the flight from Delhi carrying the
B Echelon.
Knowing the problems of
security and movement restrictions, we had decided not stay in the cantonment
and booked three rooms in a house boat on the Nagin Lake. We spent five days on
the house boat, which was quite comfortable, except that every day, one had to navigate
through the old part of the town with narrow streets to reach the place where
it was berthed. The food served was very spicy, and even after several
injunctions to the cook, things only improved marginally. We spent the next few
days taking in the local spots, such as the Shalimar and Nishat gardens, Chasma
Shahi, botanical gardens etc. We also made a day trip to Yusmarg, which was
nothing to write home about. A couple of shikara
rides and some shopping for spices in Lal Chowk rounded off the visit.
The next stop was
Gulmarg, where we stayed for three days in a sub unit of Signals. The rooms
were comfortable and since we were dining in the Officers Mess, we could get
food of our choice. Of course, we did the mandatory gondola ride up to the hill
top. It takes hours to buy a ticket and then wait in a queue to board, but
thanks to a separate quota for the Army, we did not have to wait very long. The
top was covered with snow and it was an enjoyable trip, especially for the
kids. The next day was spent in a trip to Aasha and Budh Pathri, located close
to the LOC, where the local units treated us with the ubiquitous tea and pakoras. The last day was spent at the
Children’s Park, where we found that most of the swings and merry go rounds
were occupied by adults, with the children standing around with long faces. My
daughter finally had to intervene, pointing to the sign boards that read that they
were only to be used by children.
From Gulmarg we went to
Pahalgam. Since the Amarnath yatra
was on, the place was heavily crowded. We had booked three rooms in a hut in a
complex about 7 Km from Pahalgam on the road to Aru, called River Front. It comprised
a cottage with 5 rooms located on the bank of a fast flowing stream which joins
the Lidder River. There were no other guests and we had the whole cottage to
ourselves. There was almost no habitation nearby and the girls were a little
worried. But I was carrying my .30 Winchester carbine, which I do on most
trips, especially while camping or trekking.
Except for one day when
it was raining, we spent most of the time outdoors. It was a wonderful place
and one could spend hours just sitting on the river bank. We made trips to the
Betaab Valley and Pahalgam town for shopping, pony rides as well as lunch (the
cook at River Front was terrible and so was his food). We tried to light a camp
fire at night but the wood being wet, there was more smoke than fire and we had
to give it up and go indoors.
On the last day, we moved
to Srinagar, from where the flyers were to catch an early morning flight. We
spent the night in the signal regiment located next to the airport and after
seeing off the others in the morning, Vaibhav and I left by road at about 1000
hours. We had made arrangements for a night stay at Udhampur but decided to
drive on to Pathankot, where my nephew was posted in a mechanised infantry
battalion. After spending the night with him, we left next morning for Gurgaon.
The journey was uneventful, except a mysterious object that hit the windscreen
when we were driving from Hoshiarpur towards Chandigarh. Since the road had
almost no traffic and we were doing more than 100 Kmph, we could stop only after
travelling 50-60 metres. Fortunately, the windscreen had not shattered, and the
damage was on the left side. Since the driver’s vision was not blocked, we decided
to carry on. We tried to find out the reason but could not. There were no
stones in the vicinity, and neither was there any hut or shop from where someone
could have thrown a stone. This is not the first time this has happened to me.
During the Himalayan Rally in 1983, the windscreen of our jonga was smashed when
a miscreant pelted a large stone and then vanished in the darkness. We spent
precious rally time at the next halt trying to get it replaced by the EME
detachment. Finally, failing to fix it in the slot, they just placed the
windscreen in front and welded metal clamps on the corners to hold it in place.
In 1995, while driving from Delhi to Simla for a holiday, the windscreen of my
Maruti Omni was broken by a pebble kicked up by the rear wheel of a truck in
front. I had to stop in Panipat and get a new windscreen, which took a couple
of hours.
We are still staying in Gurgaon, in
Palam Vihar. My son Abhimanyu, his wife Jasmine and their two children,
Bhuvanyu (10) and Khushi (8) live on the first floor. My daughter Mauravi had
shifted last year from Icon to Hextex Commune opposite the DLF course, because
her two daughters, Mriggya (10) and Eshaana (8) go to the American Excelsior
School which is located nearby. Her hubby, Vaibhav is now a Captain in the
merchant navy. He is presently sailing but may be home for the New Year.
There is little change in our routine. I
go to the gym in the DSOI, which is a stone’s throw from my house, at 0700,
returning at 0745 or so. Kumud goes at 0830 and returns only when the gym
closes at 1000. By this time I have gone through my newspapers, had my bath and
my breakfast and am ready to leave for the Corps History Cell in Signals
Enclave, the hospital or on some other errand. I find that with the increase in
the number of gadgets we use in the house, every week one or two go off road
and need repairs. On the days I have a court
hearing, I have to give the gym a miss.
Two major events that have taken place
in December are the passing of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament and the arrival of
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the political scene after the Assembly Elections
in Delhi. Since I was associated, in a small way, with both, I cannot resist
the urge to say thing about these development. From 2010 to 2012, I used to go
to the rallies and meetings organised by Parivartan
and IAC for the Lokpal Bill. I attended almost all the rallies held at Jantar Mantar
and Ram Lila Maidan including the ones when Anna Hazare came on board.
Incidentally, the first major rally organised by Arvind Kejriwal was in Ram
Lila Maidan on 30 January 2011, where the salient points of the proposed Lokpal
Bill were explained by Prashant Bhushan and others. I recall that Shanti Bhushan,
Justice Hegde, Ram Jethmalani, Swami Agnivesh, Medha Patkar, Kiran Bedi and several others spoke from the dais,
where I was also sitting. From there, we
marched to the Jantar Mantar, where the Rally ended. It was only after this
that Arvind Kejriwal decided to involve Anna Hazare and invited him to Delhi to
become part of the agitation. The rest, as they say is history. So, the
agitation for the Lokpal was started NOT by Anna, as most people think, but by
Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Shanti Bhushan, Justice Santosh Hegde etc,
who also drafted the bill. Of course, the movement got national recognition and
support only after Anna came on the scene.
I would also like to mention some
details of the meeting that was held in the Constitution Club on 19/9/2012,
which led to the break between Anna and the Kejriwal’s team. It was a closed
door meeting, so the media was not allowed inside. After the meeting, the horde
of journalists surrounded Anna and questioned him about what happened. Though
he had agreed to the formation of a political party after the fast by Kejriwal,
Sisodia and Gopal Rai in July-August 2012 (which Anna joined after a few days),
it was only after the Constitution Club meeting that he clearly stated that he
was against forming a political party but others were free to do so if they
liked. However, he stressed that they should not use his name anywhere,
including their caps, which everyone had been wearing since his fasts. I was
present at both venues, and I found his volte
face surprising.
There were about 50 people in the
meeting, which started at 1000 and finished at about 1900. The aim of the
meeting, as announced by Yogendra Yadav, who was conducting it, was to apprise
Anna of the views of the members, and obtain his decision on whether or not to
form a political party, which had been announced a month earlier, after the
fast at Jantar Mantar. The prominent persons who attended the meeting were
Justice Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Dharmadhikari, Anupam Kher,
Prasoon Bajpai, Kiran Bedi etc. There were also a few army veterans – Major
Katoch, the MLA from Dharamshala (HP), Colonel Baisla and me. In addition, there
were a few independent MLAs and some people from Maharashtra who were close to
Anna. In this meeting, Kejriwal sat on the side lines, like the rest of us, and
spoke very little.
Everyone was given about five minutes to
speak, and give his views and his vote. Most people were of the view that we
must form a political party. The prominent exceptions were Justice Hegde, Kiran
Bedi, Dharmadhikari and Admiral Tahliani. The people from Maharashtra were also
against it, as they felt that the ongoing agitations at district and taluka
level would peter out if Anna left the State. Anna also said that if he joined
politics, he would be going back on his word that he would not join politics,
and his standing among the people of his home state would go down. There were
also objections on the grounds of non availability of funds, shortage of time,
lack of infrastructure and so on. Finally, Shanti Bhushan, who had been one of
founder members of the Janata party that came to power in 1977, described his
own experience, setting at rest all such doubts. He explained how the party was
formed, even through JP was unwilling and voiced the same fears that Anna was
doing today. Yet, they managed to raise the party without spending any money in
a matter of six months and swept the polls. All that was needed was a wave like
the one that happened in 1977, which swept everything before it. Very few
people believed him, but in hindsight, Shanti Bhushan was not wrong, as the Delhi
elections have shown.
It was not my intention to make this a
political newsletter, but once you start, it is difficult to stop. If Anna had
shown some courage and agreed to the formation of a political party, or least
given it his blessings, I am sure the Aam Admi Party would have done even
better and got a clear majority in Delhi. In any case, their performance has
been unprecedented. This must be the first instance of a person becoming the
Chief Minster of a State after his debut as an MLA.
Incidentally,
this is my eighth newsletter (the first one was sent in 2006). Those who wish to read the previous ones can
do so by logging on to my blog http://veekaysnewsletter.blogspot.com.
Wishing all of
you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Vinay and Kumud
Singh
G-31, Palam
Vihar, Gurgaon – 122017
Tele: 0124-
4074077, 9873494521, 9899110913
25th December
2013
Pahalgam, Kashmir, July
2013
