10-29-2006, 08:35 AM
<b>In Uncle Sam's secret service</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Ask anyone in the intelligence fraternity about the mole factor and they would recount endless instances and how the establishment repeatedly looked the other way to escape embarrassment.
<b>While stories abound the one that did the rounds most was of a former Defence Research and Development Organisation top official who later became scientific advisor to the defence minister in late 1980s. The official went to Maryland on study leave and quit the Indian establishment from there after joining a US think-tank</b>.
Another senior bureaucrat of <b>additional secretary rank in the defence establishment, immediately after his retirement in the 1980s, took up an American foundation fellowship and received a huge sum as stipend for his research project. Surprisingly, the bureaucrat's topic of research was the Indian missile programme, a responsibility he had handled during his government tenure</b>.
In both these cases,<b> the officials went on to do research for US institutions, and their study papers were on subjects somewhat identical to the expertise they had acquired after years of service in the government</b>.
Though intelligence agencies here have not yet done any comprehensive study on the number of top bureaucrats and intelligence and military officials who have taken up jobs abroad, especially with US think-tanks and MNCs, a senior intelligence official claims the number is shocking.
"At a conservative estimate, 60% of RAW officials posted abroad have settled down in the country of their posting,"he says. Many of these officials have either settled down post-retirement or have taken premature retirement and joined institutions with interests inimical to India.<b> A systematic leak of the country's vital defence preparedness is not ruled out. </b>
Rabinder Singh, a former joint secretary in RAW who held charge of South-East Asia before he went underground in May 2004, is another infamous case where the government failed to hold him back despite concrete evidence of his covert ties with American intelligence.
Though there are specific guidelines for Indian operatives and military brass choosing to settle down abroad, they are hardly followed. It's time the government revised its stand on the Golden Handshake, a popular practice followed by governments in the West to weed out undesirable elements from their intelligence set-up.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>While stories abound the one that did the rounds most was of a former Defence Research and Development Organisation top official who later became scientific advisor to the defence minister in late 1980s. The official went to Maryland on study leave and quit the Indian establishment from there after joining a US think-tank</b>.
Another senior bureaucrat of <b>additional secretary rank in the defence establishment, immediately after his retirement in the 1980s, took up an American foundation fellowship and received a huge sum as stipend for his research project. Surprisingly, the bureaucrat's topic of research was the Indian missile programme, a responsibility he had handled during his government tenure</b>.
In both these cases,<b> the officials went on to do research for US institutions, and their study papers were on subjects somewhat identical to the expertise they had acquired after years of service in the government</b>.
Though intelligence agencies here have not yet done any comprehensive study on the number of top bureaucrats and intelligence and military officials who have taken up jobs abroad, especially with US think-tanks and MNCs, a senior intelligence official claims the number is shocking.
"At a conservative estimate, 60% of RAW officials posted abroad have settled down in the country of their posting,"he says. Many of these officials have either settled down post-retirement or have taken premature retirement and joined institutions with interests inimical to India.<b> A systematic leak of the country's vital defence preparedness is not ruled out. </b>
Rabinder Singh, a former joint secretary in RAW who held charge of South-East Asia before he went underground in May 2004, is another infamous case where the government failed to hold him back despite concrete evidence of his covert ties with American intelligence.
Though there are specific guidelines for Indian operatives and military brass choosing to settle down abroad, they are hardly followed. It's time the government revised its stand on the Golden Handshake, a popular practice followed by governments in the West to weed out undesirable elements from their intelligence set-up.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->