Morarji Desai: Gandhianism Or Playing with National Security? That ‘One Phone Call’ History Can Never Forgive
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Today, Pakistan is a country with nuclear bombs... but did you know that at one time, Israel was ready to completely destroy their nuclear power? For this, they approached our national intelligence agency, 'R&AW'. But the decision taken by the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai... made our enemy country even stronger. Yes, this is a bitter truth that no one in history can deny. In politics, Morarji is often considered a pinnacle of morality, but his rule ended up being a death warrant for the Indian Intelligence System (R&AW). Morarji's governance is a classic example of how an individual's hyper-morality, non-violence, and Gandhianism can push national security into grave danger.
Prime Minister Morarji Desai promoted the Gandhian philosophy that surveillance is immoral, spying is equivalent to theft, and peace is more important than war. Having taken charge in March 1977 as the first non-Congress Prime Minister due to the anti-incumbency against Indira Gandhi's government following the Emergency, the first thing Morarji Desai did upon arrival was to limit the budget of 'R&AW'. Believing that Indira Gandhi had used this organization for her personal interests, Morarji ignored chanakya neeti under the guise of non-violence and left national security to the wind.
Then PM Morarji Desai | Image Source: Hindupost
In fact, the father of the Indian intelligence system and the creator of R&AW, R.N. Kao, who knew in advance about Morarji's opposition to the surveillance system, had to resign in January of that same year. R.N. Kao, who worked for the country in the merger of Sikkim and the liberation struggle of Bangladesh, was not treated as a patriot but as a stooge of Indira. By not giving even the minimum respect due to a professional intelligence officer and sidelining him, Morarji Desai broke the backbone of the Indian intelligence system. With the departure of a mastermind like Kao, the network with decades of experience within R&AW was shattered instantly.
With the exit of R.N. Kao and a heavy reduction in funds, our 'Secret Stations' abroad were closed. The informer network, built by our agents over decades, collapsed due to a lack of funds. Morarji, who considered spying a 'sin', allowed the shield of national security to rust.
The most tragic episode in the history of the Indian intelligence system is the 'Kahuta Leak'. Our agents discovered that Pakistan was secretly building a nuclear bomb and that the center for it was the Kahuta plant. They did this so ingeniously that they collected hair samples of Pakistani nuclear scientists from a barbershop near the plant, and R&AW proved with solid evidence that they were using 'Plutonium'. For this, they took the help of Israel's "Mossad".
But, to demonstrate his honesty, Prime Minister Morarji Desai, while speaking on the phone with the Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq in late 1978, slipped up by saying, "We know what you are doing in Kahuta." With that one sentence, our network in Pakistan was exposed. Pakistan understood that there were spies within their country. They began a hunt down. With this, the intelligence network built by our country over the decades was destroyed at once. The ISI identified all our spies in Pakistan and killed them after brutal torture. History has never seen another instance where a Prime Minister mortgaged the interests of the country for his personal 'morality'.
Morarji Desai met General Muhammad Zia ul Haq | Image Source: Facebook/@IndiaHistory
Actually, in 1978 itself, Israel was ready to blow up the Kahuta plant in Pakistan. Having identified early on that Pakistan had started nuclear tests, Israel sought the help of R&AW to destroy it. The world knew that Pakistan's nuclear experiments were intended solely for use against India. But Israel feared that it might reach Arab countries (Libya, Iraq) and become an 'Islamic Bomb'. With this, Israel planned to blow up the plant in Kahuta and sought the help of our country's intelligence, R&AW. For this purpose, secret meetings also took place between the Mossad Chief and the R&AW Chief. Israel proposed that it was ready to send its F-16 fighter jets and that India only needed to provide 'logistical' assistance (such as refueling). But Morarji Desai rejected the Mossad proposal due to his 'Gandhianism' as well as the fear of retaliation.
As a result, we were left without the 'eyes and ears' (Intelligence Assets) that provided us with information in Pakistan. Consequently, we failed to detect how Pakistani terror camps were expanding across the border. Exactly ten years later, due to the absence of that very intelligence system, terrorism reared its head in Kashmir. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their own land and become refugees.
The conclusion is so strange that on May 19, 1990, the neighboring country presented the "Nishan-e-Pakistan" award to Morarji Desai. While some delude themselves into thinking that Pakistan giving its highest civilian award to an Indian Prime Minister is a recognition of his 'peace' efforts, it is an indisputable fact among historians and critics that this award was actually a gift given in gratitude for destroying the Indian intelligence system (R&AW) and giving Pakistan the time and opportunity to build a nuclear bomb. Is it not a "Nishan" (mark/symbol) of the insult caused to every spy who sacrificed for our country and to every tear shed by the Kashmiri Pandits?
