Editorial
KGB or CIA: Whose pie is it?
?It seemed like the entire country was for sale.? This sentence quoted from The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World appeared in most Indian newspapers hit one like a thunderbolt, than all the other revelations in the book, because of its contemporary ring.
That the Indian diplomats were honey-trapped in Moscow, the CPI leaders and Indira Gandhi ministers regularly received bribe, KGB penetrated IB to fund CPI, routed money to its members and mouthpiece, were some of the screeming headlines in the Indian Express, which was the first in India to publish the extract. The report quoted it was ?a model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government??
It is a soothing feeling that inspite of all these penetrations India has remained so far a sovereign democratic country with its political system and geography intact. The situation looks more frightening today, the kind of ongoing negotiations with the North-east insurgents and the Kashmiri terrorists aided and abetted by the US and Pakistan. India, in 1972 looked less militarily vulnerable, though politically in turmoil and economically shattered. But the post-Bangladesh liberation euphoria then created a sense of hope and confidence.
This is not to distract the importance of the expose. More startling information about the Indian politicians have shattered our conscience over the years. The Communist parties in the country always worked as pawns of foreign interests.
The party split as CPI (M) and CPI not on any ideological question, but on the degree of their loyalty vis-?-vis China and Soviet Union. Now there is a more aggressive contender: the Maoist terrorists.
The CPI was openly and shamelessly aligned to the Soviet bloc and the CPM unabashedly declared ?Chairman Mao our chairman.? They still nurse a historic suspicion about the Indian geographic boundaries, and perhaps believe the contentious claims of hostile neighbours are more genuine. The comrades are good at name calling. They have developed a dictionary of abuses for their political opponents. But the friendly media and the well-entrenched establishment will not remind them of their treacherous existence. The CPM still considers itself close to China.
Understandably the Congress and Left rebutted the contents of the book as concoction. Veteran CPM leader Jyoti Basu quoted Moynihan to cover up CPM-KGB connection and alleged that if the KGB could be blamed, the CIA should also be named for funding the Congress government. As if that is justification enough. Why did the CPI close down most of its publications after the fall of Communism in Soviet Russia? The Party used to get a cut in every trade deal with erstwhile Soviet Union. In retrospect it can be conceded, the Americans were more successful. Who knows few years from now, we may get another book again from similar western sources claiming more contemporary names in alleged CIA payroll. Espionage is an old game. The strength of a nation state is in tracking down and dealing with a heavy hand elements working against national interest. Great countries don'tnegotiate with subversives and traitors. They have a separate and stern system to deal with infiltrations, insurgents and terrorists. They don'tallow political cover to terrorists and traitors.
Many events in the sixties and seventies point to the existence of the foreign hand? Interestingly Indira Gandhi made her politics revolve round allegations of foreign hand. The nationalists in the country always suspected a conspiracy behind the suspicious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent. More intriguing was the gruesome murder of the Jan Sangh President Deendayal Upadhyaya in equally mysterious circumstances. The truth is still under wraps.
During the Janata Party rule the attempts to destabilise the Morarji Desai government started immediately after one of the senior party leaders made a trip to Moscow. Madhu Limaye raked up the dual membership issue to drive out the Jan Sangh segment from the Janata Party on his return from a visit to Soviet Union. All these are straws in the wind. Internal politics being manipulated by external interference. Congress is a pastmaster in the game. Remember, during his recent visit to the US, the Prime Minister, complained to President Bush about the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee opposing the Indo-US treaty. Bush patted Manmohan Singh on his back and said you are a good man. How long will India live with politicians out of sync with national pride, easy going on convictions, ever-willing to sell their soul for the few proverbial silver pie.
