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Cover
Story
‘If our minorities loose faith
in the Indian state, they will be easy prey for the ISI’
Teesta Setalvad spoke to the
IG Intelligence, BSF, Vibhuti Narain Rai in Delhi.
Pakistan’s Inter–State Intelligence
agency is increasingly being mentioned as the hand behind most extremist
acts in the country. What are the facts about the ISI’s involvement in
them? How much of it is xenophobic fiction?
The ISI is a frightening reality
today. I personally feel that as an institution, it is the biggest challenge
and threat which the Indian state is facing today. We must face this
challenge unitedly as a nation.
Today, if a Hindu girl marries
a Muslim boy in Gujarat, sections of the media and Hindu extremist groups
label it as the handiwork of the ISI! In the circumstances, do you not
agree that the central government owes it to the people of this country
to publish a White Paper on the ISI, to furnish proof of its network
and activities in India?
I think we should publish a White
Paper that details the scope and reach of the ISI and the threat that it
represents. This will put all the facts before the people on the far-reaching
network of the agency and its activities. Such a document will also prevent
the attempt by some to use the ISI as a bogey, as one more stick to bash
some of our own people with!
To prevent the creation of such
irresponsible phobias — in the sixties and seventies, if you recall, the
CIA hand was behind every incident in the country — we need such a responsible
document that places the findings of professional investigation before
the public. At the same time, it should be candid about our own internal
mistakes.
Doesn’t the government’s refusal
to place such a document before Parliament and the people help fuel more
rumours and phobia about the ISI and which in turn is given communal-sectarian
connotations by extremist organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena ?
I repeat that such a White Paper
in the nature of a public document should be released. And we must have
the strength and capability of realising our own mistakes internally. This
document must contain details of the intelligence collected, dangers to
be guarded against. It must take our people, especially the intelligentsia,
into confidence.
We should not provide breeding
grounds to the ISI. If our minorities loose faith in the Indian State,
due to acts of commissions and omissions of the police or other agencies
they will be easy prey for the ISI.
Could you elaborate?
What were the bomb blasts in Mumbai
after all? We presented a golden opportunity to the ISI to utilise the
despair and disenchantment caused by the viciously motivated violence against
the minorities in December 1992 and January 1993.
Given the sensitive nature of
the situation, how must a force like the ISI be tackled?
A threat like the one posed to
India by the ISI has to be tackled on two fronts: one, as a law and order
issue, internally; and, two, on the international front. On the first front,
the implementation of the law must be firm and neutral. In fact, the neutrality
of the police force, paramilitary and other wings of the law and order
machinery are absolute prerequisites if the ISI threat is to be tackled
effectively.
There is no other country in the
world that can boast of a minority that is 120–million strong. Yet, it
is this community whose ‘nationalistic credentials’ are constantly ‘suspect’
because of the religious–communal dimension of the ISI–driven propaganda.
The second front on which the ISI
must be dealt with involves ultra-professionalism and political expertise
because here we are dealing with international crime that is geared to
exploiting our weaknesses from within.
Has the ISI hand been established
in recent bomb blasts in churches in Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka?
Investigations are still on but
I will not be at all surprised if the ISI hand is finally proven. Pakistan
is an ideological state based on the two-nation theory and the peaceful
co-existence of different communities on Indian soil disproves the very
foundation of Pakistan. To negate this peaceful co–existence, the ISI would
go to any extent.
Ironically, at the other end of
the spectrum are Hindu fascist organisations whose basic philosophy, too,
militates against the idea of different religious communities and peoples
of many identities living together, co–existing. Their approach, too, supports
Pakistan’s two–nation theory.
I personally would not be at all
surprised if a criminal like Dara Singh, who is espouses hatred against
Indian Christians, is found to be an ISI agent!
If we, as the Indian State, as
the law enforcement authorities, or as Indian civil society, refuse to
distinguish between the ISI and Indian Muslims and constantly blur this
crucial distinction, we are playing into the hands of the ISI. We are supporting
the genesis of the two–nation theory, which is exactly what the ISI wants.
Any organization, whether Hindu
or Muslim, which propagates hatred and believes that Hindus and Muslims
represent two different civilizations and have no commonalities is playing
the ISI game.
Are there any typical areas in
the country from within which the ISI recruits its potential agents?
From our intelligence reports,
we have been able to glean that the ISI’s strategy is to take its recruits
from industrial towns with floating populations. For example, Panipat (Haryana)
and Pilakhuva (Uttar Pradesh) where we have weaving/dyeing and chemical
explosive units.
In these towns they create their
hideouts in what are known as ‘safe houses’, from where they build up their
contact persons. For example, in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, we unearthed an ISI
network that was spying on the Air Force base there. The links are closely
developed and nurtured. It is only when one of these links breaks that
the plan/conspiracy is unearthed.
In India we blame the ISI, in
Pakistan RAW is constantly blamed for acts of insurgency. For example,
RAW was claimed to be behind a spate of recent bomb blasts in trains in
Sindh etc. Are not the agencies of both countries using similar tactics
to de-stabilise local law and order situations? Why blame only one of them?
I do not deny that RAW may also
be using some counter–insurgency tactics within Pakistan. But the ISI is
much more professional and much more ruthless than us. They function within
a scenario where there is no democracy, no autonomy and no shortage of
funds.
In the whole of South Asia, today,
narco–terrorism is controlled by the ISI and India is being used as a conduit
with narcotics being smuggled via Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu. After
the bomb blasts in Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim shifted his base from Bombay
to Karachi and is reportedly working for the ISI.
Is there any community–specific
recruitment by the ISI given the communal undertones of the animosities
between the two countries?
If you were to examine in detail
all the espionage–related arrests made since Independence, we can see that
non–Muslims — Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — have all been caught for spying.
This includes those caught for spying at the army headquarters, defence
establishments, our top scientific establishments. Monetary gains and the
greed for more are not confined to a particular community! For money, hard
cash, anybody will do anything.
However, when it comes to the burgeoning
of madrassas and the kind of teaching that takes place within them, other
factors play a role. It is only when a section of people, an entire religious
community in this case, feels wronged and alienated — and can there be
any question that that is how India’s religious minorities are feeling
at the moment? — when their faith in the impartiality of the state machinery
is completely eroded, that they become easy prey for the designs of an
outfit like the ISI. We are allowing the ISI to penetrate here by our own
mistakes. Apni galtiyon se ham ISI ko palne aur phailne ka mauka de rahen
hain. They are growing not because of their own capabilities but because
of our mistakes.
But madrassas have for long been
a fact of life in India just as pathshalas and other religion-driven educational
institutions have been. Then why talk only of madrassas? Have their been
any studies conducted on the curricular content of teaching within the
traditional madrassas and those that have reportedly mushroomed in the
border areas between India and Nepal and India and Bangladesh in recent
years?
No comprehensive study on the curricular
teachings within madrassas has so far been made. But we do have the concrete
example of Tripura where state intervention has yielded positive results.
In Tripura, the state was contributing to the grants made to madrassas.
The state’s DGP suggested a deepening of the madrassa curriculum to include
within its scope vocational training like computer application. This has
made a marked difference in the opportunities available to the students
who emerge out of these institutions in terms of job prospects.
What have our agencies concluded
about the nature and orientation of the ISI, its thrust, focus and intentions?
The ISI is a ruthless organisation.
It needs to be combated strongly and firmly. We have inputs about its activities
in Delhi, Assam, UP, Andhra Pradesh and border areas.
A common pattern observed is that
potential ISI recruits hail from the lower middle class. The madrassa and
madrassa education plays a crucial role in preparing the mind–set of youngsters.
Having been taught in essence that jehad is an integral part of Islam,
they are then willing to transgress all limits to achieve their aims.
For example, part of the training
that takes place at Muridke by the Dawa–ul–Irshad (where recruits of the
Lashkar–e–Toeba hail from) in Pakistan is to teach the young Muslim who
hails from a poor background is that he is not a real Muslim unless he
undertakes this mission of jehad.
We have the phenomenon of an increasing
number of such madrassas mushrooming in parts of India, especially
in the border areas of Nepal and Bengal. Where will the recruits from such
institutions go, what will they do once they emerge from these madrassas?
The madrassas offer no vocational training, the entire approach to education
is to control thought and stifle dissent (See ‘Moulding of a moulvi’s mind,
CC, January, 1995). For a recruit emerging out of here, jehad becomes an
occupation. What else are they fit for, only one in so many can become
a muezzin in a mosque?
The very idea of building madrassas
that impart education with a very limiting curriculum is to create potential
recruits for the ISI.
But madrassas have existed for
centuries. So, how justified is the assumption of the Indian intelligence
agencies that the recent sprouting of madrassas, especially in border districts,
is part of an ISI grand design? How justified is the assumption that these
madrassas, like the ones in Pakistan, have the same ideological thrust
towards jehad and pan-Islamism?
Madrassas have been used by the
ISI for recruiting new agents and for subversive propaganda against the
Indian State. Personally I feel that madrassas are against Muslims themselves.
The education and orientation imparted within the madrassa system does
not help the community in acquiring a progressive, scientific and modern
outlook. Rather, it makes them backward and incapable of facing the challenges
of living in contemporary society. You will rarely ever find a rich or
politically well–placed Muslim sending his children to a madrassa.
Some organisations seem to be
deliberately creating the impression in the public mind that Muslims alone
get lured by the ISI. Since this is not true, why can’t the government
release a list of those arrested for spying for Pakistan to counter such
motivated propaganda?
Normally when an ISI agent or spy
working for Pakistan is arrested, his names and details are published in
newspapers. There can be no harm done if a consolidated list is published
from time to time. I would again like to reiterate the fact that large
numbers of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have been arrested over the years
for spying for Pakistan. In many cases it is monetary gain which is the
motivating factor. |