Do we need a spy in today’s age? Is the spy’s life as glamorous as James Bond movies present it? These were some of the questions that India’s two veteran espionage specialists, A S Dulat and Vikram Sood, tried to answer.
Dulat, former RAW director who has recently co-authored a book, ‘The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace’ with Lieutenant General Asad Durrani, formerly the director general of Pakistan’s ISI, mostly spoke on Indo-Pak relations and the role of the intelligence establishment of both countries in it. Sood, also a former RAW director and author of ‘The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief’s Insights Into Espionage’, spoke more on the challenges that the security establishment faces in the light of the quantum leaps taken by technology and the easy availability of it to the common man.
But it were recent trends in India-Pakistan relations that got the two spymasters talking.
On the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor by Pakistan, Dulat thought the hug between Navjot Singh Sidhu and Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa really set the ball rolling even though India had proposed it to Pakistan 30 years ago.
Dulat said Sidhu drew unnecessary flak for the hug. “When Punjabis meet, they hug,” Dulat said. He also said Sidhu had the gumption to say in Pakistan that after 70 years, a “ferishta” has come and that was Imran Khan. He said the bonhomie between Sidhu and Khan may just reopen the India-Pakistan dialogue, which would be a great thing.
Sood was circumspect. He said the peace process has moved so many times and yet things come to nought. He said Imran Khan may be good but it’s really the Pakistan Army that calls the shots. “The fact that you had General Bajwa at the Kartarpur ceremony shows that Imran has his approval,” Sood said.
Dulat also said that the gains made over so many years in Kashmir have been completely undone in the past two years. “We have made a hash job of Kashmir. The militants today are not Pakistanis. They are local Kashmiris. They are not asking for ‘azadi’ or to be with Pakistan; they are now fighting for Allah. The average life expectancy of a Kashmiri militant today is a week or 10 days. But they are still joining. We have made a mess of Kashmir. This government has made a mess of it. Kashmir needs dignity, justice, understanding,” Dulat said.
Dulat also said that the Vajpayee line should be taken in Kashmir. To a question on the different approaches being taken by the Vajpayee and Modi governments on Kashmir, Dulat called it unfortunate and said the Modi government has disowned Vajpayee.
Both speakers also said that India’s RAW is second to none.
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