Author: S Gurumurthy
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: April 17, 2004
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/Column.asp?ID=IEU20040417041345&P=old
There is no time for side shows.
Let us go straight to the heart of the issue. The Indian spy agency, RAW,
formed in 1968, had established a clandestine network with its counterparts
in different countries __ with the USA, UK, Israel, France, West Germany
and other countries which possessed the capability for exchange of information
on terrorism, insurgency, China and similar subjects.
The RAW did not consider Italian
spy agencies as worthy of such association, as they did not have any capability.
So India did not bother about them.
Rajiv Gandhi entered active politics
after Sanjay's death in 1980. He began to participate in the classified
briefings of the RAW even though he held no position in the government.
Not just he, he wanted Arun Nehru and Arun Singh too to participate in
such briefings. The agency protested saying that they had no official position.
But Indira Gandhi stepped in and asked RAW to allow them to be present.
The agency agreed reluctantly, but told Indira that their names would remain
unrecorded in the briefing.
This was when Rajiv was not in the
government and was just a general secretary of the Congress party. Soon,
even though he had nothing to do with the Government or the RAW, Rajiv
began insisting that the RAW should liaise with the Italian spy agencies.
Why Rajiv should have insisted on Italy? Did he study the importance of
Italian assistance to India? Nothing of that sort. The reason is Obvious.
Sonia.
Rajiv had married her in 1968. The
RAW felt that it would be a waste of time and money. But Rajiv would not
relent. The agency finally gave in. So after more than a decade, the RAW
was forced into accepting liaison with the Italian spy agencies whom they
considered not worthy of association. Want to know who acted as the go-
between for the RAW with the Italian spy agencies and arranged the first
clandestine meeting between RAW spies and Italian spies? Believe it: Sonia!
Obviously, she was in touch with
Italian spies. An innocent and devout housewife, unconcerned about politics
and state, was deep in her contact with the Italian spy agencies. This
was when she was still an Italian national, had not yet accepted Indian
nationality which she reluctantly did much later. Being in the Prime Minister's
household, she was in touch with the spies in Italy. So even when she was
just a housewife and Rajiv was not yet in the government, she was linking
the Italian spies to India.
An aside. One of the reasons why
the RAW would not touch the Italian agencies could be the presence of Sonia
in the PM's house. If they officialised the liaison with the Italian agencies,
their reach would not be limited to RAW, but may extend to the PM's house.
Next, when after terrorism broke
out in Punjab and the security agencies advised Indira Gandhi to travel
in bullet-proof car, she wanted the Ambassador car made bullet- proofed.
As India developed this capability only much later in 1985, a German company
was chosen for the job.
Want to know who brokered the contract
with the German company? Walter Winci, the husband of one of Sonia's sisters,
Anushka! The RAW suspected that he got a small commission out of it. But
the more critical was that a sensitive security work was given through
Sonia's brother. Look at the Italian influence Sonia had brought in even
when Indira was alive.
It is the same Walter Winci who,
two years later, in 1986, insisted and received cash payment made by the
Indian government. This was for arranging training by Italian security
for SPG which had been established in 1984 for the protection of Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The cash payment was first attempted
through the RAW official posted at Geneva. Walter Winci refused to come
to Geneva to receive that cash and wanted the RAW official to send it to
Milan in Italy. Winci 'assured' the RAW official that that he had 'good
contacts' in 'Swiss' and 'Italian' customs and he would not be checked.
The RAW official would not budge.
The recalcitrant official was finally
told to tell Winci that the operation had been cancelled. But the money
was delivered to Winci through the Indian Embassy in Rome.
Want to know what for the cash was
to be sent? For funding the traveling expenses of the Italian security
officials to come to India and train Indian SPG commandos. This is the
payment B.G Deshmukh, who was then the cabinet secretary, has mentioned
in his latest book. But this training ended in a fiasco.
The Italian trainers treated the
SPG trainees rudely, and even slapped one of them. The RAW brought this
to the notice of Rajiv and told him such ill-treatment may develop a grudge
in the minds of the SPG against Rajiv which might be a security risk. Panicked
Rajiv forthwith called off the training by Italians arranged by Walter
Winci.
After Rajiv was assassinated, Sonia
began openly relying on Italian and western security for Rahul and Priyanka
when they travelled to Europe. When Rajiv went to Paris in the year 1985
along with Sonia, a RAW official proficient in French was asked to go to
France to liaise with the French security agencies.
At Leon in France, the SPG officials
panicked as Rahul and Priyanka were missing. But Winci told them not to
worry. He told them that they were in the safe care of Jose Valdemaro,
the husband of another sister of Sonia, Nadia. Winci told them that the
two had been taken to Madrid in Spain, where Valdemaro hails from, by train
and the Spanish authorities were taking care of them.
The Indian security officials were
stunned that, not they, but the Spanish and Italian security agencies were
aware of the Madrid visit of Rahul and Priyanka. It is not just that Sonia
did not want to trouble the Indian security system, or take the favour
of Narasimha Rao who was the Prime Minister then. It was simply that she
did not trust them.
You want more clear evidence of
her distrust of India? Here it is: In 1986, the RAW official stationed
at Geneva was told by Jack Kunzi, the Commissioner of Police at Geneva,
that the VIP children had returned safely to Italy after their visit to
Geneva. Who were the VIP children? The RAW official had no clue. He knew
nothing about their visit.
The Swiss police official who was
the RAW official's good friend told him their names. You have any doubt
who they could be? They were Rahul and Priyanka. They had come to Geneva
by car with Walter Winci, said the Swiss official. He also informed the
RAW official he was in the picture and the RAW official was not. He said
that the Italian foreign office was the co-ordinator. It had informed the
Swiss foreign office, who in turn informed the Swiss police.
Jack Kunzi taunted the RAW official
who was his friend, ''Your Prime Minister's wife does not seem to trust
you or your embassy. She gets the security for her children co- ordinated
by Italians.'' Humiliated, the RAW official makes the usual complaint to
his boss. The boss files the complaint. There ends the story of humiliation
of India in Switzerland and Italy.
Remember this kind of information
spreads like wildfire in geo-politics through global spy network. That
Sonia did not trust the Indian officials, or the Indian embassies, or the
Indian security is now a matter of global geo-political information. Want
to know more on this? Read on.
After Rajiv's assassination, the
RAW official who was in charge of security arrangements abroad for SPG
protectees which included Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka, knew less about her
and her children's travel plans than western intelligence and security
agencies. The Indian agencies knew nothing or very little.
George, her secretary, used to directly
communicate to western agencies through Italian Embassy in Delhi and the
Italian foreign office in Rome. The upright officer informed the RAW chief
before he retired that the western agencies were better informed of Sonia's
and her children's travel plans than the Indian agencies. He charged that
this had created the unfortunate impression that Sonia did not trust the
Indian agencies. His complaint went to Narasimha Rao who was the Prime
Minister then. He felt unhappy that George, that is Sonia, was informing
the Italian embassy, not the Indian agencies, but he could do nothing about
it. You ask him now. Even now he will not tell the truth. But the RAW official
would.
So she was linked to the Italian
spies and was familiar with bringing about spy connections, a highly skilled
and scary business, as early as the early 1980s. Yet she pretended, even
now does, to be an innocent housewife.
She brought her family into the
security matters of India even when Indira was alive. She forced Italian
security on India even when Rajiv Gandhi was alive. She openly distrusted
Indian security and diplomatic system and privately liaised with the Italian
diplomatic system for her security. If she did this when Indira was alive;
if she went as far when Rajiv was alive; if she did this when she was just
out of the Congress and out of power, what will she do when put in power?
Or what she will not? Yet she pretends
to die for India. This is not real Sonia. The whole western world, not
exactly the friends of India, knows about her. But not we, in India. We
do not know the real Sonia.
(Writer's email: comment@ gurumurthy.net)