New Central Intelligence Service In The Offing

A new intelligence agency, tentatively called the Defence Intelligence Agency, is on the drawing board and could join the existing Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) as a third independent source of intelligence at the central level.

The proposal stems from the Kargil Committee Report, authored by a three-member panel chaired by defence analyst K Subrahmanyam. It was considered over the past two days by the task force set up recently by the government to make specific recommendations on the implementation of suggestions made by the Kargil panel.

The task force on intelligence is one of four task forces that are to report to a group of ministers, constituted a month ago, which will decide on implementation. The intelligence task force held its first meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. It expects to finalise its report in about three months.

 

Jammu and Kashmir Governor G C Saxena, who heads the task force, told Business Standard yesterday that this was only the beginning of the exercise and it was impossible to say yet what set up would emerge finally.

Sections of RAW, which Saxena headed from 1984 to 1987, are already apprehensive, however, about the scope and functioning of the proposed agency. They fear that some of their functions would be taken over by the new agency.

There has been a clear demarcation of responsibilities since RAW was established in 1968, with IB responsible for internal intelligence and RAW for reports on what is brewing abroad. Earlier, external intelligence was the responsibility of a division of IB.

The Kargil panel held that an overlap in functions could be an advantage since one or other agency would then be more likely to uncover information that the others slipped up on. A measure of competition, it suggested, would be good, even if it meant the allocation of more resources for the job.

Some RAW officers realise, however, that the new agency would inevitably take over part of their territory. They fear for instance that a number of the posts in embassies abroad, which are currently given to the RAW cadre, may go to the new agency.

They also point out that RAW now has technical equipment far more sophisticated than what most other Asian countries have. There could in future be a tussle for the latest devices between it and the new agency, they point out.