The Intelligence Bureau has been at the forefront of India’s security wars and internal insurgencies, tackling revolts in the North-East and J&K.
Working in the shadows and gathering intelligence for internal security since the British Raj, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is quietly moving towards compiling its official history. IB director Nehchal Sandhu, after consulting senior officers last year, decided on this.
Sandhu had sent out a letter seeking suggestions to improve IB’s counter-terrorism efforts and talked about putting together its history. Encouraged by the response, he roped in Amiya Samanta, a retired IPS officer from the West Bengal cadre to head the project, and put together a core team of IB officers to assist him. They are likely to seek help from a few history professors of the Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The inspiration comes from a similar exercise undertaken by the IB’s British counterpart, the Security Service, known in popular literature as MI-5. Two years ago, it published its official history The Defence of the Realm authored by historian and a columnist with The Guardian Professor Christopher Andrew. For the British government this was an unprecedented move, because till 1989, it had not even officially acknowledged the existence of the Security Service.
For the IB, this is a momentous move. It has been a witness to a colonial nation suppress nationalism and battle communism in the colonial era and then switch over to protecting the republic in post-independent India.
It played a significant role in the annexation of Kashmir, with its then chief BN Mullick playing a significant role to help prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru achieve his aims.
In 1962, after it was surprised by the Chinese aggression, it came under pressure to cave out the external intelligence division into a separate and full-fledged organisation. The IB resisted it for a few years, but with the coming of Indira Gandhi, it surrendered, and the external intelligence agency R&AW, with Gandhi’s close confidant RN Kao as its head, came into being.
However, during the Emergency, the IB once again played a major role and helped the Congress government maintain a tight control on its political opponents.
Since 1947, the IB has grown significantly, taking on more roles, maintaining several desks, such as monitoring the Left parties, the minor regional political parties as well as serving the interests of the ruling party in power. It is probably the only central government organisation that has a presence in almost every district in the country.
The IB has also been at the forefront of India’s security wars and internal insurgencies, tackling revolts in the North-East and Jammu & Kashmir. Some of its officers, such as former director Ajit Doval, played a major role in breaking up the secessionist Mizo National Front. It is believed that Doval infiltrated the camps and managed to convert six of the seven military leaders to India’s cause. This forced rebel leader Pu Laldenga to cross over, negotiate and then emerge as Mizoram’s elected chief minister.
The IB has now expanded its charter significantly to improve its counter-terrorism efforts and has an operations desk that has been at the forefront of combating terrorism. For many years it was led by Doval who was succeeded by Sandhu. However, the IB has also been combating moves to make it more accountable to Parliament.
While its British counterpart was finally recognised and validated by an act of parliament in 1989, the IB continues to exist in the shadows. Perhaps, its official history could be the first step for its spies to come in from the cold.
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