The Spy Chronicles

255 Pages·2017·1.3 MB·English

Previously by A.S. Dulat and Aditya Sinha
Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years (2015)
Previously by Aditya Sinha
The CEO Who Lost His Head (2017)
Death of Dreams: A Terrorist’s Tale (2000)
Farooq Abdullah: Kashmir’s Prodigal Son (1996)
Forthcoming from Asad Durrani
Pakistan Adrift: Navigating Troubled Waters (2018)
THE SPY
CHRONICLES
RAW, ISI and the
Illusion of Peace
A.S. Dulat, Asad Durrani
and Aditya Sinha
To my late parents, Shamsher and Raj, who spent many joyous hours playing
bridge with two successive High Commissioners of Pakistan in India: Syed Fida
Hussain, my father’s former ICS colleague, and Abdul Sattar.
—A.S. Dulat
To all the faceless agents who take great risks in the service of their country.
—Asad Durrani
To my parents, Neelam and Chandreshwar Narain Sinha, who, in England during
1965-71, were best friends with Gulshan and Nazir Hussain, immigrants from
Lahore.
—Aditya Sinha
Contents
Preface
Introduction
I: SETTING THE STAGE
1. ‘Even if we were to write fiction, no one would believe us’
2. The Accidental Spymaster
3. Brotherhood to the Rescue
II: THE SECOND OLDEST PROFESSION
4. Pakistan’s Deep State
5. ISI Vs RAW
6. The CIA and Other Agencies
7. The Intelligence Dialogues
III: KASHMIR
8. Status Quo
9. The Core K-word
10. Amanullah Gilgiti’s Dreams of Independence
11. Kashmir: The Modi Years
12. The Unloved Dr Farooq Abdullah
13. Take What You Can Get
IV: KABUKI
14. India and Pakistan: ‘Almost’ Friends
15. Lonely Pervez Musharraf
16. Modi’s Surprise Moves
17. The Doval Doctrine
18. The Hardliners
19. BB, Mian Saheb and Abbasi
20. Good Vibrations, India-Pakistan
V: THE FLASHPOINTS
21. Hafiz Saeed and 26/11
22. Kulbhushan Jadhav
23. Talks and Terror
24. Surgical Strike
25. The Politics of War
VI: NEW GREAT GAME
26. The Deal for Osama bin Laden
27. Selfish Self-interests in Afghanistan
28. Donald Trump, Nudger-in-chief
29. Pakistan’s Pal, Putin
VII: LOOKING AHEAD
30. Forge Structure or Break Ice?
31. Council of Spies
32. Akhand Bharat Confederation Doctrine
33. Deewangi Khatam
Notes
Index
About the Book
About the Authors
Copyright
If only somehow you could have been mine,
what would not have been possible in the world?
—Agha Shahid Ali, ‘The Country
without a Post Office’
Preface
In the dedication, A.S. Dulat and I have each mentioned India-Pakistan friendships
that were deep and, silly as it may sound, beautiful. It is a growing fear that in the
age of shouting heads on TV and hyper-nationalistic NRIs, we are reminiscing
about a bygone era. All hope is not lost—my elder daughter was best friends with a
Karachi-ite during her undergraduate years at New York University. On the whole,
however, she seems part of a shrinking minority, and a window of opportunity for
goodwill between the people of the two nations may be closing. It is to keep that
window open, and show that through the window one may see endless possibilities,
that this book was written.
The hostilities that are ceasefire violations across the Line of Control erupt
occasionally, but the norm is of long periods of peace. Similarly, armed conflict
between India and Pakistan has broken out on four occasions in their 71 years of
independence. Even the proxy war of terrorism is characterised by intense bursts of
violence that occasionally puncture everyday peace.
The cold war between nations, conducted by their spy agencies, is continuous,
however. There is no let-up. There are no uniforms, or counter-measures that force
terrorists to opt for soft targets. Spies and their networks live 24x7 lies at great risk
to themselves. They are a last line of defence. If a Kargil happens, then it is
ultimately attributed to intelligence failure. Terrorism is seen as a slippage through
an invisible net put up by the agencies. War is either pursued or averted mainly due
to intelligence efforts.
The army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate has been Pakistan’s main
intelligence agency since immediately after independence. The cabinet secretariat’s
Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), founded 50 years ago as of September 2018,
was created out of India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) due to perceived failures of the
1962 and 1965 wars with China and Pakistan, respectively. Due to Pakistan’s
unique history, the ISI has gained a larger-than-life aura, often seen in India as
Pakistan’s Deep State. The RAW has a similarly sinister image, if not among its
own citizens then at least among those across the western border.
This book brings together two men who each had a stint at heading their
respective agencies. As such, they have been privy to their nation’s greatest secrets
—whether they relate to secret agents placed in sensitive foreign locations, nuclear
weaponry, strategic intelligence, or secret liaison with foreign agencies and
governments. They are the keepers of their nation’s dark matter.
Indians and Pakistanis keep trying to talk to one another. Politicians and
diplomats speak to their counterparts; peaceniks exchange notes; sportsmen share
locker-room chat; and businessmen drool over each other’s markets. This is open.
Spychiefs rarely talk to each other—you can be certain that the spies never do—
though there have been occasions when their governments have directed them to
do so. In the last two decades, some former spychiefs have come together to
exchange views in Track-II dialogues. But they have never spoken openly.
As the two spymasters say, they are aware of the stakes. What they say to each
other, around a table, their guards down, counts for something. Their conversation
goes to the heart of the India-Pakistan relationship; a deep dive into the Deep
State, if you will.
This book was Dulat’s suggestion after the encouraging success of the 2015 book
we co-wrote, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years. Since he and Durrani had earlier co-
authored two papers, his idea was to follow that format. Chiki Sarkar, the publisher
at Juggernaut Books, suggested to me that to reach a wider audience as well as to
make it an interesting read, it ought to be in a dialogue format. She pulled
Hitchcock/Truffaut out of her living room library as an example. It was a winning
suggestion, in my opinion.
After Dulat got Durrani on board, they enlisted the help of Peter Jones, of the
University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Policy Studies. He helms the Track-
II ‘Intel Dialogue’ between India and Pakistan, and he graciously agreed to host me
at the meetings in Istanbul (May 24-26, 2016) and Bangkok (February 1-3, 2017
and October 28-30, 2017), so that we could spend a couple of days after the
official engagement to produce material for this book. There was a meeting that we
did on our own in Kathmandu, Nepal (March 25-29, 2017), though Sudheendra
Kulkarni of the Observer Research Foundation, an ardent supporter of the project
throughout, offered to facilitate.
These meetings produced a total of over 1.7 lakh words. The manuscript
prepared for publication was half that size. The transcripts had a lot of spontaneity
and the two former chiefs got into the spirit of each discussion; I have tried to
retain that tone in the manuscript, despite the second thoughts of each participant
at different points. I have also attempted to provide the flowing literary style that
Dr Farooq Abdullah told me he admired most about Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years.
Unlike Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, which was essentially Dulat’s narrative and
thus demanded to be read chronologically, this conversation between Dulat,
Durrani and myself can also be read differently: that is, one may read chapters or
sections out of order or in isolation, and drift back and forth through the book as
one fancies. The choice is the reader’s.
In acknowledgement, mention must go to Krishan Chopra, who seized the
project with both hands and did not let go; Siddhesh Inamdar, who put in much
effort to produce this book; my friends Mayank Tewari, who at difficult moments
reminded me that Philip Roth would have treated this project as ‘material’, V.
Sudarshan, who reminded me that this project was an enviable journalistic exercise,
and P. Krishnakumar, who gave me a gig at Mid-Day which was invaluable in more
ways than one; and of course my spouse, Bonita Baruah, whom I regard as my
better 51 per cent.
Aditya Sinha
New Delhi, India
March 2018