From: brao@pollux.usc.edu (Bapa Rao)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Regarding RAW-Mossad Nexus to Fight Terrorism
Date: 26 Jul 1992 02:27:34 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu

In article <samaddar.712121512@dumbo> samaddar@siemens.com writes:

>Before getting paranoid about west, think about motives. Does Israel
>have any enmity with India? About the only motive I can think of is
>that Israel is just reserving an IOU from India. India may be useful
>to Israel someday in neutralizing Pakistan's A-bomb. There too India
>is not obliged to help. The fact that Israelis are in general well
>disposed towards Indians/India inspite of decades of anti-Israeli
>rhetoric is probably a mystery to you paranoid types.

I am afraid you have misunderstood the point I was trying to make.
"Enmity" between India and the West or Israel is an overly simplistic
characterization. There is a wide gap between India's strategic goals
and those of Israel and the Western powers. If they deem it necessary
and useful, the Indian connection will be used in overt and covert
ways by the latter to move their own ends forward. My point is that
the nature of India's strategic interests is such that advancement of
Israeli or Western goals (in this particular context) will necessarily
result in an undermining of India's interests. Specifically I am
referring to the communal aspects: Israel would no doubt prefer the
"Hindu card" to neutralize Muslim aggression, whereas India cannot
expect to prosper in the face of unrelieved strife between Hindus and
Muslims. In all this, there is no question of "enmity" involved; only
pursuit of stategic interests. The West and Israel don't perceive
India as a threat since, quite correctly, they understand that both in
terms of intent and capabilty, India poses no threat in fact.
This was true in the heyday of the Soviet Union and it is true now.
But this perception doesn't mean that they would be willing to defer
covert action in pursuit of their goals. If India suffers "collateral
damage" as a result of that action, well, tough luck, it was nothing
personal. 

One may well ask: Could India not use Israeli or Western support in a
symmetric fashion to advance its own ends. I feel that the answer is
no, for two reasons. Firstly, there is the divergence of strategic
interests I mentioned above. Secondly, the Indian intelligence and
national security apparatus has proven itself vulnerable and even
inept in many past situation to the extent that it does not inspire
confidence in its ability to hold its own against an efficient and
dedicated agency like Mossad. The infiltration scandals that I
mentioned earlier are one example of this vulnerability. Other
examples are the disastrous Sri Lankan adventure, the inability to
come to grips with security problems in Punjab and Kashmir after all
these years to name only a couple. 

In making important policy decisions such as establishing an
intelligence link with Mossad, it is wise to step cautiously. I think
that the decision was made with cavalier haste. Both the decision and
the manner in which it appears to be made constitute an admission of a
dangerous level of helplessness in the intelligence and security
apparatus. Not a healthy indication.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and our policymakers might have
decided that India's strategic interests lie in visiting Israeli-style
oppression upon Kashmir and Punjab. If so, I can only say that there
has been a terrible misapprehension of what is needed for maintaining
India's unity and integrity. 

K.V. Bapa Rao