The Hindu Business Line : Out with the tyranny of secrecy

The news that the CBI has initiated proceedings against Maj Gen V.K.Singh, the author of the book India's External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW, and its publishers, Manas Publications of Delhi, would have come as a rude shock to those who are for open government and abhor the tyranny of secrecy.

The rationale for the creation of the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) in September 1968 was the same as that for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the US and the MI6 in the UK. While the domestic and foreign wings of the British Secret Service were reasonably free from any accusation of encroachment on civil liberties, the CIA soon became notorious for its dirty tricks. Therefore, the possibility of the RAW too taking after the CIA weighed heavily on the minds of the Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi, and Home Ministers Gulzarilal Nanda and Y.B.Chavan, during whose time the proposal was mooted.

They were willing to approve it only on condition that the background of the personnel posted to the agency was thoroughly vetted for trustworthiness and personal and professional integrity in order that those running it could be trusted to ensure that the manner of its functioning conformed to stringent norms of accountability and propriety.

R.N.Kao was selected as its first chief, only because it was believed that with his reputation for rectitude and respect for the rule of law, he would be able to establish the right traditions.

Apparently, going by the widely published observations in Gen Singh's book, the agency has not lived up to the high standards expected of it, and has degenerated into an organ of inefficiency, corruption and waste of taxpayers' money under cover of secrecy.

ENGINE OF REPRESSION

Instead of going about cleansing the RAW in a straightforward manner, the powers-that-be have invoked the draconian Official Secrets Act, 1923, against Gen Singh and the publishers.

Remember, this Act, denounced by the former Supreme Court Judge, Mr V.R. Krishna Iyer, as `a profanity on the corpus juri of the nation', had always been employed by the Imperial British rulers as an engine of repression and oppression to facilitate India's continued enslavement.

That it should be dusted up for use in this instance, and especially in the era of people's right to information, is indicative of utter insensitivity and, indeed, an insult to the credentials of a free nation in the Diamond Jubilee of its Independence.

It is also a sad reminder that even after 60 years of living in a democracy, the diehards of the governing class have not been able to shake off the old colonial habits. The proper response to the revelations of the kind made by Gen Singh was to ask a high power committee under a person commanding the nation's respect and confidence to undertake a comprehensive review of the working of the agency, and suggest administrative and operational remedies for any ills that had crept into the organisation and for ridding it of black sheep and bad eggs.

In fact, a similar committee with L.P. Singh, the former Home Secretary, as the chairperson and the founding Director of the CBI, D. P. Kohli, and the second Director of the IB, M. M. L. Hooja, as the other members, (with myself as the Member-Secretary), had recommended in 1978 a number of measures to prevent the mismanagement and misuse of the IB and the CBI.

The most important of the recommendations was to have an oversight mechanism to guard against their overstepping their limits. Although the RAW was not within the committee's purview, it had strongly urged the Government to consider applying its recommendations to that body also. The report of the committee has been in cold storage ever since!

B.S.RAGHAVAN

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