D.C. Pathak 

 

 

 

 

 

THE ‘Bharat Ratna’ awards announced this year to posthumously honour some well-known leaders in public life for their contribution to the country’s great democratic progress, add to their credibility and create a good feeling all around. Amongst the recipients is former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao who successfully ran a minority Government for five years from 1991 and with whom I served as Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB), from mid-1994 up to the end of his tenure as Prime Minister in 1996. Prime Minister Rao is best known for handling the political strategy that allowed his Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to set out with the much-needed economic reforms. Prime Minister Rao made a lasting impression as an intellectual, a scholar, and a linguist but more than that as a leader of a nationalist outlook and an administrator who enjoyed the respect of bureaucracy for taking decisions with great clarity. He was very quick in understanding the nuances of a suggestion. Even senior officials and ministers were somewhat in awe of him for his strategic thinking and deep understanding. He was a man of few words who always put across his views and advice in effective short observations and had an aura of authenticity about his leadership. He normally never called any officer on Sunday - he was modernistic about realising the importance of a weekly rest day for the hardworking bureaucrats.

 

At the height of trouble in Kashmir, he once held a plenary meeting in which all those who mattered in the management of that State - from the Governor and the Army chief to the Cabinet and Home Secretaries - were in attendance. The discussion was on what ‘stronger’ measures if any, could be taken to deal with the situation. The Prime Minister went round the table and the participants mostly asked for a new hardline. He finally asked me sitting next to him as Director, IB, for my views. On a considered assessment, I advocated that we should stay put and watch the situation further. Prime Minister Rao endorsed this and said that no new steps were needed. When the participants pressed for a decision on further action, he famously said that “not taking a decision was also a decision”. This could come only from an intellectually strong leader. On another occasion, I told the Prime Minister that my senior officers were suffering because the delay in the ‘empanelment’ process made them a victims of the rule that a minimum of 11 months must still be available to them before retirement, for them to be given the promotion due to them. I remember telling the Prime Minister that “the procedural could not kill the substantive” - he immediately grasped the point and called the Cabinet Secretary to sort it out.

 

From this emerged the practice of ‘in situ’ promotion whereby IB officer would get next higher grade from the day he became eligible for promotion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi deserves the credit for giving due recognition to those leaders who from a historical perspective stood out for their role in carrying democratic India forward. The Bharat Ratna to many who had been left out for some reason will have the effect of uniting India by keeping this recognition above party politics. This year, Padma awards were also meant to extend national acknowledgement to craftsmen, scientists and those who did exceptional social service for people at the local level - and were kept relatively free of a political or bureaucratic imprint. If the Bharat Ratna awards are appreciated by the people of India, their ‘timing’ does not matter to them - better late than never would be their basic response - and if the action of the Government brings political goodwill to the present Prime Minister, why should anybody have a grouse? Recalling my association with Prime Minister Rao as the Director, IB, for over two years, I do feel that the IB has always served the nation as a professional Intelligence agency - making a judgement call ‘on its own about what was a potential threat to national security and integrity. Congress lost the 1996 General Election - partly because of internal rifts - and I became the first Director of the IB to serve a BJP Government with the late Atal Behari Vajpayee being invited to form the Government as the head of the single largest party.

 

Unfortunately, that Government was short-lived - possibly because all in the Opposition shaken by the first-time event of BJP coming to power on its own, joined hands in the vote of confidence. Prime Minister Vajpayee was a fine leader with equanimity and grace, and I had more than one occasion to brief him even in that short period of time. I got the opportunity of serving a third Prime Minister - H. D. Deve Gowda - representing the United Front with its heavy dependence on the Congress. Amidst all the political turmoil that his regime witnessed, I remember Prime Minister Deve Gowda as a person of practical insight and understanding. Late Gujral was a thinking leader. To him goes the credit of conceiving for the first time the idea of a coordinating body for Intelligence and Security at the national apex - it could not materialise then but would later result in the formation of the National Security Council (NSC) and its Secretariat- the NSCS, after the Kargil war.

 

I am glad I was able to function as the Intelligence chief with all the three regimes that together represented the entire political spectrum of India - Congress, BJP and the United Front - at that point of time. In a nutshell, my experience as Director, IB, confirms my belief that India must continue to put our national Intelligence agencies on a special footing for their priceless contribution to national security. It is a matter of great satisfaction that Prime Minister Modi - aided by an extremely competent National Security Advisor - is giving all attention to our Intelligence set-up and the resources it requires, particularly to the matter of inter-agency coordination and the vital need for an integral response to any threat to India’s security, integrity and sovereignty. Bharat Ratna awards strengthen the impression that Prime Minister Modi is a national leader and not just the leader of the party in power.