Mr Balachandran, added: “We never do that. If anything new has started, I have no knowledge about that.” Mr Dulat said: “We don’t do the kill work. That was an aspirational thing, but it’s not been seen to be their bread and butter.” No assassinationsįormer officials are adamant that assassinations have always been ruled out. “They should have the ability, like the Israelis allegedly do, to reach out and touch bad guys wherever they are in the world. Some of the most hawkish Indian securocrats have disagreed, believing instead that RAW should copy Israel’s Mossad, and be able to conduct killings.ĭr Walter Ladwig, an expert on South Asian security at King’s College London, said: “There’s always been this undercurrent, or at least one school of thought, that that should be the model for Indian intelligence. It needed to be able to conduct “covert action”, but it was decided that was limited to political action and influence, not assassinations. “East and West, RAW operates everywhere, but our main priority is the neighbourhood and to secure our neighbourhood,” explained AS Dulat, a former RAW chief.įrom the beginning there was debate about what action RAW should be allowed to take. The focus from the start was India’s own backyard, primarily Pakistan and China. Its ranks have traditionally been filled by Indian civil servants, many of them former policemen like Mr Rai. That means it does not have the same parliamentary or congressional scrutiny as MI6 or the CIA, according to intelligence academics. RAW was founded by executive orders to serve directly under India’s prime minister. India realised we ought to have a professional external intelligence agency.” We didn’t have much intelligence about the capabilities of China. Vappala Balachandran, a senior former RAW officer and special secretary in the government, said: “The 1962 Indo-China war gave us a big jolt because we could not really understand. The Intelligence Bureau, India’s internal security agency, its equivalent of MI5, had failed to foresee either the humiliating 1962 border war with China, or the 1965 invasion by Pakistan in disputed Kashmir. RAW was founded in 1968 under prime minister Indira Gandhi after New Delhi felt it had twice been blind-sided by its neighbours. The furore has turned rare attention on an intelligence agency serving the world’s most populous nation is much less well known further afield despite its reputation in its own region. Mr Trudeau’s announcement, which has provoked outrage in India, was followed by the swift expulsion of Mr Rai, who Canada identified as the local station chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW or R&AW), India’s equivalent of MI6 or the CIA. Yet Mr Rai and his organisation were thrust into the spotlight this week, after explosive allegations from Justin Trudeau that India assassinated Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. His low-key, bureaucratic manner fits perfectly with the anodyne name of his employer: the Research and Analysis Wing. With his spectacles and sombre grey suit, Pavan Kumar Rai looks every inch the professional senior Indian civil servant.
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