Is AS Dulat striving for glory at national cost?

Every writer is too painfully aware that it isn’t enough to be lucid and creative; reaching out to potential readers also involves a bout of creative marketing in which reviews, author interviews and media coverage all play a role. To that extent, the onrush of publicity surrounding former RAW chief AS Dulat’s reminiscences of the Vajpayee years is only natural. I haven’t as yet secured my copy of the book but judging from the extremely competent interviews of the author by Karan Thapar and Barkha Dutt, it promises to be obligatory reading for all those interested in India’s contemporary history. Certainly, the pre-publicity surrounding Dulat’s account of some of the more hidden aspects of decision-making and statecraft — in which the Congress-BJP slugfest is a part — has made me want to pick up a copy.

However, while the author, the publishing industry and even chroniclers of the India story may be well served by the latest addition to the memory industry, there is a deeply troubling question that needs to be asked.Dulat wasn’t just another politician such as K Natwar Singh, an observant ‘insider’ journalist like Tavleen Singh or even a part-time apparatchik like Sanjaya Baru. Nor is Dulat of significance because of his present-day role as a player in the internal affairs of the Delhi Gymkhana Club — important as that might be. Dulat was a long-time functionary of the Intelligence Bureau who was subsequently handpicked by Atal Behari Vajpayee’s all-important Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra to head the Research & Analysis Wing of the Cabinet Secretariat — India’s external intelligence agency. Subsequently, upon retirement, he was included in the Prime Minister’s Office and given, among other things, responsibility for Jammu & Kashmir. In both capacities, Dulat either took decisions or had access to information that can — without any measure of exaggeration — be described as Top Secret.

Given his strategic importance and the fact that he has no known political axe to grind at present what he writes can be treated as reasonably authentic. Going by the wide-ranging interview that Barkha Dutt did with him on NDTV last Friday evening, Dulat has spilt a lot of beans. Some of the information divulged by him were probably known to others, including journalists who take an interest in these matters. However, there is a difference between picking up relevant whispers from the corridors and even getting a strictly-off-the-record briefing from someone in the know and a top Intelligence functionary putting it down in print. To use the jargon preferred by spooks, one is bound in complete deniability, the other isn’t.

The issue is not any potential embarrassment that may accrue to people intent on painting the Vajpayee legacy in a particular way. As far as I can gauge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no reason to lose sleep over the revelations. The revelation that prominent members of the pro-azadi camp in Jammu & Kashmir were obligated to the Indian state for favours big and small should hardly cause the BJP any embarrassment. On the contrary, it may confirm some suspicions that extremism, whether in Jammu & Kashmir or the North-East, is often as much to do with commerce as with conviction. likewise, if Syed Salahuddhin of the Hizbul Mujahedeen who lives in Pakistan as a state guest sought an out-of-turn admission to a medical college in Srinagar and wasn’t averse to maintaining contacts with Indian Intelligence, it is not Modi nor the present state Government that will be running for cover. At best, Dulat’s revelations about the suitcase economy that operates in the troubled State may confirm the feeling that Intelligence agencies play purposeless games, unmindful of the larger human cost.

Of course, Dulat is not a wannabe Snowden. I somehow don’t think he was out on a crusade to establish Open Government or even demolish what bleeding hearts decry as the Deep State. He had a limited role: to sell his book.However, this particular post-retirement income generation scheme has a larger implication. The importance of the Intelligence agencies to any Government is two-fold. First, there is the bread-and-butter business of collecting information on every aspect of life linked to the Government’s custody of the national interest. Secondly, the Intelligence agencies are entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining links with all manner of people on the understanding of complete and total confidentiality. Discretion and confidentiality are at the core of the spook’s dharma so much so that in many countries the political executive is spared all operational details. Within the framework of upholding the national interest, the Intelligence agencies have a very wide functional autonomy. This may explain why the utilisation of funds at the disposal of the agencies are never scrutinised by Parliament. Arguably, this often leads to misuse and what is euphemistically called ‘private practice’ but overall, the system works on absolute trust.

It is trust that Dulat appears to have violated. The charge is grave because it is not a mere matter of an individual peddling his life story: Dulat’s revelations have a direct bearing on the reputation of Indian Intelligence. There are many individuals and groups — some ostensibly hostile to India — that maintain covert links with this wing of the state. These are investments in people that could lead to something meaningful or it could end up as a waste of time. Yet both endeavours are bound by complete confidentiality. Spy agencies are not expected to be stakeholders in the kiss-and-tell agency.

By even divulging a fraction of the operational details he was privy to in his distinguished career, Dulat has compromised the reputation and integrity of India’s Intelligence apparatus. He has contributed to the impression that India’s spooks don’t have the institutional rigour to be discreet. That, undeniably, is the message that will resonate throughout the world, not least in the more difficult areas of operation.When he sits down with mates in Gymkhana Club to celebrate his book’s great success, Dulat should ponder over the larger national cost of his personal glory.