The Intruding Bureau (IB)

The Intruding Bureau (IB)

Recently I came across a report which said that the IB has reported that Congress will get between 160 and 165 seats and along with allies it will total about 210. (source: headlines today). I was wondering when the nation is on highest security alert, the elections in progress, key leaders traveling across nation then how come the premier intelligence agency of India is busy with an exercise which have very little significance. I was confused with the above task then I further came across another story that the Congress headed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre has instructed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to bring out a survey of all the new parliamentary constituencies and provide a conclusive new data base of caste equations in the same.
I am told that this is not an exception of this government but successive Governments including the previous NDA government have used IB for above purpose. In an era of terrorism the agency which should have been busy with intelligence gathering to avert terrorist attacks, is busy with gathering political intelligence.

I came across an interesting book by a former Joint Director of IB, Mr. Miloy Krishna Dhar called Open Secrets. I do not know the book was written with true intentions or to plant stories, but there had been some wonderful mentions in the book which are related to political intelligence: Quote / Un-quote from the book:

“I was not aware of IB surveillance around Indira and her important aides, including Dhawan. The IB has bugged most of their phones and planted discreet watchers at 12 Willington Crescent, the home and hub of activities of Indira Gandhi. Dhawan's parental home at Atul Grove lane was also covered under blanket intelligence coverage. His personal residence at 141 Golf Links was covered by the IB sleuths. In fact, two IB agents were infiltrated amongst security staff that guarded Indira Gandhi.” (Page 234 – Open Secrets by M. K. Dhar )
(Think it over - when residence of a former Prime Minister, her aides can be bugged, who are me and you)

“The tasking included surveillance and shadowing on Maneka and her associates and generation of intelligence on her activities.... My officers had burrowed deep into the affairs of the family. Some of the personal details were nauseating and I did not cherish the idea of looking into private bedrooms of individuals. Human frivolities often open up exotic windows into their character and in some social sectors the players exhibited extreme resilience. But in high stung political drama the bedroom scenes often spelt out irretrievable disaster” (Page 266 / 267 – Open Secrets by M. K. Dhar)
(Think it over – IB used by a mother-in-law to have surveillance of a daughter-in-law and if the IB can enter bedrooms of a daughter-in-law of PM, mine and your residences are not immune to it)

“The domestic servant was won over and he offered running commentaries on the happenings inside the residence. An unexpected tip from him that his employer would be out of Delhi for two days offered an opportunity to place the bugs in the target home..... The assigned task was accomplished without breaking into the premises of Menaka Gandhi. I managed to identify the pairs of wires that connected the telephone of her office and home telephones. Appropriate miniature radio transmitters were connected to the target pairs of wires near the junction boxes and, which were hooked to miniature tape recorders.” (Page 271/274 – Open Secrets by M. K. Dhar )
(Think it over – how simple it is to place bugs in your home, telephones and more – does that matter even if you win a case in Supreme Court)

“At one point of time in 1982, Indira wanted the parliament office of a particular ruling party to be bugged for sifting out intelligence nuggets about a possible coup against here.” (Page 286 – Open Secrets by M. K. Dhar)
( Think it over - Parliament which is the most scared institution of Democracy was also not spared but why this surveillance on our own colleagues ?)

“I was assigned the task of electronic sweeping/cleaning of the PM offices in the south block by using certain bug detecting equipment. I tumbled against an unexpected bug and a forgotten micro-radio monitoring machine. The bug was planted inside the phone of an aide to the Prime Minister, planted by IB during V.P.Singh regime. …The other device was installed at a point of time when Rajiv Gandhi and Zail Singh had developed irreparable hostility. The devices mounted some where on top of the PMO picked up telephone conversations from certain treated phones in Rashtrapati Bhawan.” (Page 433 – Open Secrets by M. K. Dhar)
(Think it over – our own agency bugging offices of Prime Minister and President- I think they do not trust anyone)

There are more revelations of Dhar which I missed in the book but were reported in the Indian Express (http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/64588/ ) and they include:
L K Advani wanted the IB’s videotape of the demolition of the Babri Masjid from its archives to prove his innocence. The IB director, apparently instructed by officials from the PMO, refused to oblige.
Indira Gandhi got the IB to check out whether one of her ministers was holding a yagya to destroy her. Another time a bugging device was planted in the office of a party colleague.
Dhar helpfully ‘‘straightened out the service record’’ of Zafar Saifullah, who ended up as Cabinet Secretary.
Rajiv Gandhi used the IB to channel funds to BJP candidate Kailash Meghwal to ensure the defeat of his Congress opponent, Buta Singh.
The IB was used to select the Congress candidates for the 1983 Delhi Municipal Corporation election.
The IB was asked to bring around a western UP leader to support Narasimha Rao’s government and his price tag was reportedly Rs 500 million!
Even after sixty two years of independence the IB continues like the Chanakya’s secret service. It bugs the telephones in Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan. It keeps tab on not only the political opponents but even on ministerial colleagues of the Prime Minister.

There are many methodologies adopted by IB which includes the use of media as information outlets. Spreading of rumors, planting false stories, surfacing forgeries, use of agents, funding NGOs, influencing collaborators, voluntary or paid. Have you heard of the story before these elections that IB was looking into four houses for Dr. Manmohan Singh in case he loses elections. It is rumored that the IB intercepts and open around 6,000 letters daily. It also has an email spying system similar to FBI's Carnivore System. The Intelligence Bureau is also authorized to conduct wiretapping without a warrant. The IB also has numerous authors who write letters to various newspapers and magazines to support the government's perspective. I have seen it myself where in many such individuals wrote on the e-group moderated by me. Infect there was also one individual who planted stories to tarnish the image of many.
Governments across the Globe have snooped on their citizens, and Indian is no exception. You need not be a lawbreaker or even a suspected one. But this is done on a random basis to build a possible evidence against you that could be used to build a case against you. Bank account application, driver's licence, telephone calls, paper mail, e-mails, Internet activity all come under preview of this surveillance. There are possibilities for abuse in such a system. I remember one of the senior Government officer abused such information against me. But as citizen in Democracy would you like to have a policeman to have access to your telephone conversations and without your knowledge ? And without any recourse even if you do find out about it ? Would you like a someones eye in your bedroom when you are in those passionate movements with your wife? (or someone else)

Honey trap is one of the most common method used by intelligence agencies across the world and these days it can be a guy or a girl because the intelligence agency knows you inside out. Just that you need to fall in the trap. Another trap which is the most common amongst Indian agencies is the Horoscope trap. It is a trap wherein lot of politicians, officers and even common man falls. Initially lot of information is planted about the correct predictions of the said under cover officer. Even a couple of predictions are proved correct as well and then follows a never ending trap of Horoscopes and future predictions. Have anyone imagined, how many horoscope readers predicted about the success of key political leaders like Advani, Mayawati and Jayalalitha. There are also rumors that once an astrologer was taken blindfolded to house of a senior leader who wanted to know if he will ever become a Prime Minister or not. (Read more about the horoscope trap at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/\papers20\paper1985.html ). The organization is also believed to play a psychological warfare with individuals and even in countries or groups. Many a times key aides of an individual actually are all infiltrated to create a thought amongst the said person. The agencies also don't desist to take help of religious gurus, in the process. In order to control cyber crimes , the related rules, regulations, policies and law have evolved,not only agencies even bureaucrats can now sneak in your computers. The result is that a cyber terrorist is not caught but the same results in undue harassment to the genuine user. With networking sites the agencies do infiltrate the friend lists of their targets and then take things forward. Infect realizing that the same technique can be used against them the members of the defence forces have been asked not to post their pictures in uniform on social networking sites because the military intelligence has learnt that foreign spy rings could use women to "honey-trap" such officers to obtain sensitive defence information. (http://pibmumbai.gov.in/scripts/detail.asp?releaseId=E2009FB29)

And above it there are multiple famous incidents of phone tapping:
1.Allegations that the state government of Gujarat had tapped phones of former finance minister Haren Pandya and senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela. (http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/65874/ )
2.The allegations by Amar Singh of tapping of his phones (http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/05/stories/2006010510670100.htm)
3.In the recent elections the alleged tapping of phones of the leaders of Praja Rajyam party in AP (http://www.bharatwaves.com/news/IB-tapping-Chiru’s-phones--10548.html )
4.The source of the Salman Khan – Ash tapes which reached all the TV channels http://www.tehelka.com/story_main13.asp?filename=Ne073005Bollywood_in.asp
5.And we all remember the Menaka Gandhi Vs Union of India

But these days the press had started focusing on the secret state. Refer articles by Ritu Sarin in Indian Express, Swati Chaturvedi in th Statesman, Prabhu Chawla (long ago in India today) It is no secret that all key post offices keep tabs on domestic mail and you never know your Post Man, Domestic help or driver are the undercover agents. Nor is it any secret that telephones are routinely tapped and thousand of domestic calls have been placed under surveillance including all international calls are subjected to some kind of screening. Most deluxe hotels provide IB with facilities to tap guest telephones; some even allow the Bureau to place listening devices in bedrooms. (http://www.rediff.com/news/apr/02vir.htm )

The government has decided to create a database of all mobile and fixed line calls within the country in an ambitious and unique attempt to track unlawful activities by identifying calling patterns and mapping social networks. (http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/1311-centre-map-your-phone-network.html )

During the budget sessions the Finance Ministry takes no chances. The security agencies have started to set up a small telephone tapping exchange in North block. The electronic contraption can intercept private mobile operators’ cell numbers. Electronic sweeping devices are being installed on either side of the corridors of the finance ministry section of the North Block, fortify the security futher The mini intercepting exchange also keep a close eye on the 100 odd landline telephone numbers installed in the chambers of various bureaucrats. The intelligence bureau also block e-mail facilities to most of the computers in the offices of Union Finance Ministry. (A discussion thread on RTI India forum
http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/34-budget-document-official-secret.html )

But is it appropriate to blame the Intelligence agencies for these political intelligence. The fact remains that their efficiency has been impaired by political interference or inaction. It is no secret that the Intelligence Bureau spends a huge amount of resources collecting information on Opposition parties and leaders to ingratiate its officers with the ruling dispensation. Every Government in India has misused the Intelligence Bureau for internal political snooping. The most serious aspect of the whole debate is the alleged lack of transparency and accountability of intelligence agencies. United States of America has paid maximum attention and it now keeps tab on these agencies so that they do not violate the basic law of the country. Apart from an Inspector-General who forms the internal oversight mechanism reporting directly to Director- CIA; the system also has a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Also, the Intelligence Authorization Act, 1990 brought in congressional oversight of the working of CIA's Inspector-General.
In the UK, both MI5 and MI6 are now governed by statutes and are subject to scrutiny by an Intelligence and Security Committee appointed by the Prime Minister. Although not a statutory committee of Parliament, its multi-party composition promotes objectivity.

Interestingly, neither our IB nor RAW is the creation of a statute, nor do they have a written charter,. There is a big problems in running this kind of omnipresent surveillance. In a democratic framework citizens would be outraged if they knew that they were the subject of this kind of surveillance. In India, though the Constitution does not provide for Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right, multiple judgments of Supreme court exist wherein the right to privacy has been defined as part of fundamental right to life and liberty. Also, citizens of India are free to express their opinion under the fundamental right to Freedom of Expression and Speech. But then why this surveillance on individuals who are just expressing their thoughts. I recall when I wrote an e-mail to the india-egov group that I would be writing about corruption in name of Good Governance, the result was that my services were gone by end of September. The Government banned the yahoogroups on the pretext of banning a small yahoo group which was of very little consequence. All this in time when a journalist – politician was heading the Ministry of Communication and IT. I still feel at times that because of the e-group I was subjected to such surveillance. Anyways the UPA Government gave a wonderful tool in name of Right to Information Act wherein I have applied with MHA for the said information. But all I would say that unreasonable surveillance of this nature is usually extra-legal and anti-constitutional. Activists would be alarmed, and certainly raise a huge furore, if any such cases came to light. But the citizens will feel offended if they know that their privacy is being invaded in this manner.