Spy vs. Sipahi

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A new history of the KGB alleges that the Soviets had deeply infiltrated Indira Gandhi’s government in the 1970s. Based on the KGB’s own documents, the book argues that:

Russia’s feared KGB spy service penetrated all levels of the Indian government under Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and became a major cash backer of her Congress (R) party.

The KGB operation in India during that period was its largest in the world outside the Soviet bloc and it even had to create a new department to handle it… suitcases of money were regularly taken into Gandhi’s house to fund the Congress party, and in the 1977 poll which she lost, nine party candidates were KGB agents.[Link]

“It seemed like the whole country was for sale” — Former KGB general Oleg KaluginThe general argument here is nothing new, but these details had not been heard before and they’re causing quite a kerfuffle in India.

There is the claim, for example, that the KGB convinced Indira Gandhi to declare a state of emergency in 1975.

The book also points out that the CIA had tried to infiltrate the Indian government as well:

The inquiry “uncovered two occasions” during Jawaharlal Nehru’s prime ministry when “the CIA had secretly provided funds to help the Communists’ opponents in state elections, once in Kerala and once in West Bengal.” …  ”Both times the money was given to the Congress Party which had asked for it. Once it was given to Mrs Gandhi herself, who was then a party official. [Link]

However, the KGB proved more successful because it was better at exploiting the widespread corruption under Indira Gandhi. Their operation in India was :

“one of the largest outside the Soviet bloc” and was seen as a “model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government”. [Link]

The KGB remained heavily involved with the Indian government through Rajiv Gandhi’s administration, and their relationship ended only in 1989 with the end of the Cold War.

Politicians in India have been scrambling to respond to the book:

The Congress party, which currently heads India’s federal coalition government, rejected the allegations. “It’s a completely baseless story intended only for sensationalism,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said in New Delhi, adding that the book was not based on official archives.

But the main opposition group, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded an investigation. “The perception of Congress-KGB links has always been there. The book only makes it stronger. We want a federal probe into this,” BJP party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. [Link]

Communists in West Bengal, one of the world’s last surviving bastions of the Left, Monday laughed away the contents of a new book that said some of their key leaders in India were recruits and beneficiaries of the erstwhile Soviet secret service, KGB.

“It is a smear campaign against the Communists, an effort to belittle us and sounds totally fabricated,” West Bengal Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary Manjukumar Mazumdar told IANS on Monday. [Link]

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p>Although there is a possibility of a smear, the book is based upon the best records available concerning the KGB. (This is a book about the KGB, India plays only a small role in it).

The Mitrokhin archive contains more than 200,000 documents smuggled out of the former Soviet Union by a dissident KGB archivist who was in charge of moving dossiers on foreign intelligence operatives from central Moscow to Yasenevo on the outskirts of the city.

During the move, which took more than 10 years, Vasili Mitrokhin had unparalleled access to the “crown jewels”: names and identities of KGB officers, their agents, informants and operations.

For more than 10 years he copied the documents on to pieces of paper that he smuggled past security guards in his underwear and shoes. He hid them in trunks around his house and canisters at the bottom of his garden.

In 1992, after revealing the extent of his knowledge to officials at the British embassy in Latvia, he was settled in Britain with a new identity and MI6 launched a sensitive operation to retrieve the documentation from Mitrokhin’s home. [Link]

Henry Kissinger has issued a clarification of his earlier remarks, explaining that he never said Indira Gandhi was a bitch. Instead, he now claims, he said “Indira Gandhi is Russia’s bitch.” However, he still has no regrets about US support for Pakistan while it was killing 3 million Bangladeshis. 

18 thoughts on “Spy vs. Sipahi”

  2. There is irony in Indira Gandhi fomenting trouble in Punjab because of her stupid paranoid conspiracy minded corruption and instigating a decade of Hell there – and then the Congress Party in the aftermath painting Sikhs as disloyal to India when their Godfathers were selling India like a pimp sells a whore to the Soviet Union – traitors.

    Truly, there is no scum on Earth like an Indian politician.

  3. Looks like this is a UK only release for now…if anyone knows where I can get this in the States, puhleeze let me know!

  6. Oh, so both CIA and KGB funded the Congress. Against the communists. And KGB urged Indira to declare Emergency, with whichi came he witch-hunt and torture of a lot of Communists leaders. WTF???

  8. “And KGB urged Indira to declare Emergency, with whichi came he witch-hunt and torture of a lot of Communists leaders. WTF???”

    Yes, at that time, Congress was very ruthless against communist parties both in West Bengal and Kerala. Almost every communist leader was put in jail, and all the JNU red-wonks. It was their full time obsession.

    It is a shameful period in Indian democracy but let’s not twist the facts. As I always said, look at the bigger picture, before anyone jumps the gun.

  9. Hi Have any of you seen the flick “Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi” situated in pre emergency times.

    What stood out was the idealism with which some of the brightest sutdents embraced communism (which kept happeneing till many years later)The path of activism is indeed a slippery one and soon, one doesnt know what is real and imagined. I have seen many waste their lives over ideoligies like this, mewrely ebcause they thought they were doing the right ghing by being anti-establishment(Establighment like Indira’s rule, that is)

    This part of India’s history and how it shaped the political atmosphere has not been analysed enough. Am glad to see all these things being dug up.

    Hopefully, younger people in India will elarn important lessons from this information and find ways to not let their idealism be used to their own detriment.

    Great post!!

    Sumita

  10. Anyway, this isnt like a huge revelation..you know ??

    The Soviets went bankrupt financing their corrupt satellite states..The US is headed down that path..Its a matter of when, not ifÂ…

  11. The story got a lot of press but no one so far seems to providing any hard facts. There are claims that a lot of stories were planted in the press. Which stories were planted in the press? I havent seen any examples of such stories in any of the news websites.

    Another issue is what did the russians use to bribe the indians. What currency/goods did they used to bribe? Its unlikely that they were using there US$ or UK pound-sterling foreign exchange to bribe Indians. That was used for more expensive targets in the west. Rouble was not convertible and could only be used with the russians. Ie you have to be able to purchase goods A with a currency/goods/services that the seller desires

    In the mid 1970’s Naxalite movement carried through by CPI-ML came out in fullforce. CPI-ML were bribed by china, with arms and some poor training. Congress and others essentialy declared war on the communists of all brands not just CPI-ML. One can argue that a youth congress was created for this purpose only. Its quite possible that the russians backed congress to keep chinese influence restricted because But again no information is presented into the political dynamics of KGB’s involvement. What were there political objectives.

    Regading claim is that KGB convinced Indira Gandhi to impose emergency. Well this is analogous to claims made by astrological swamis and their groupees that Baba X predicted event E that you are reading about today. They are only interested in taking credit for events that have already uccored. KGB was an influence, but not the only reason why Indira-Sanjay gang decided to impose emergency. I think in this story the KGB is blowing its own horn.

  12. Kush,

    The communists hardly suffered during emergency. CPI was fully behind Mrs G during that period and came out unscathed. CPIM was not allied with the Congress, but nevertheless did not suffer much. In West Bengal the guys who took the brunt were CPIML (Naxalites). AFAIK, Jyoti Basu and other CPM leaders were not imprisoned during that time.

    The brunt of emergency was borne by non-communist opposition, ranging from JP, Morarji to Advani Vajpayee. I find it strange that Communists should come out of this exercise being hailed as martyrs. Ridiculous.

    Regards

  13. tea,

    “The brunt of emergency was borne by non-communist opposition, ranging from JP, Morarji to Advani Vajpayee.”

    That is true. It is also true that Congress party really disliked Naxalbari, and therefore their wrath was on them. You are right about CPIML and AFAIK. As Guru G Khatri pointed they might be some USSR blessings to counter China influence.

    People like JP, George Fernandes, Vajpayee and other were also treated like animals.

    A lot of marxist grass roots organizations were hit hard like Students Federation of India and Democratic Youth Federation of India. But in those days (for a long time), Congress party’s favorite past time was messing with Communists governments in WB and Kerala – that I all wanted to point out to counter KGB analysis.

    Emergency was due to extreme Indira Gandhi-Sanjay Gandhi paranoa and undemocratic way of politics. I am not apologzing for emergency, just arguing it was not a KGB plot.

  14. “And KGB urged Indira to declare Emergency, with whichi came he witch-hunt and torture of a lot of Communists leaders. WTF???” Yes, at that time, Congress was very ruthless against communist parties both in West Bengal and Kerala. Almost every communist leader was put in jail, and all the JNU red-wonks. It was their full time obsession.

    Kush, what I am wondering is, wouldn’t KGB prefer to strnghtn the MArxist movement with their money, raher than aiding Mrs G and the Congress, who were hell-bent on eliminating it?

    And don’t remember Saju baba’s hobby – forced sterilizations.

  15. fob,

    I think Sanju baba had his own agenda for emergency, not KGB’s – and that was plenty. Sanju baba had total grip over Indira Gandhi.

    Very interesting theory is that for Lenin, the prize was British India. They are books written about it.

    I think USSR interest was in keeping India more aligned towards them – in terms of strategic and business alliance. From USSR viewpoint, India was counter to China and Pakistan-US-China alliance.

    Maybe, KGB might have provided some money to communist parties that were headon with Naxalbaris, as they were somewhat supported by China [pure conjecture – never read anywhere]. I think neither China or USSR were really deeply involved in Indian politics.

    We created our own mess.

  16. “Maybe, KGB might have provided some money to communist parties that were headon with Naxalbaris, as they were somewhat supported by China [pure conjecture – never read anywhere

    Just read their statements and its obvious where they were getting support from. Most of Indias north east insurgents used to get support from China also. The present status is that there is a lull. The chinese may start the operations again. Lal Dainga became an elected minister in his not so distant past he used to run an anti india insurgency from China. he then ran away to france. The operation was clue less because China just wanted to create trouble for India they knew that mot all of the Mizo tribes will line up with Dainga, and not to mention other tribes who are non Mizos.

    In the 60s an organization called All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries showed up around the same time when there was trouble brewing in siliguri naxalbari area and slowly creeping up on the chickens neck area of India-Tibet-EastPakistan border area. These people were fanaticaly crazy. Even today in west bengal there are remnants of those revolutionary. They however are anti-US, pro Mao, anti Hindi(linguisticaly), mostlikely are anti hindu. Every thing is a big conspiracy for them. Heres an example of such a character PBS fronline doccumentary about crazy clueless dangerous demagouges Keep in mind that this comes from PBS frontlineworld a left leaning organization. This is complicated and has several dimensions and can be another sepia mutiny topic by itself. …I may do it if i ever get around to make my own blog.

    The coordination comitee members were all maoist. They tried to linkup with Andhra Pradesh communist but could not because AP members were not loyal to china. These folks also officialy stated some 30 years too late that USSR is a neo coloniast power. Geez what took them so long! Occupation central asian stans had already uccored decades before! Now why would the communist change position all of a sudden in late 1960s. The chinese communists were starting to split away from the russians and this is an evidence of their influence(aka bribe).

    Here are a few web links for them Just read their doccuments. You will conclude that CPI-ML was a chinese backed and for the mostpart a clueless organization and even today its clueless and doing nothing to make anyones life any better and hoping for a revolution.

    http://www.massline.info/India/Indian_Groups.htm http://www.factbites.com/topics/AICCCR http://www.antiimperialista.com/en/view.shtml?category=11&id=1105101713&keyword=+ http://www.geocities.com/cpimlnd/basicdocpath.htm