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Monday 1 July 2013

B RAMAN A TRIBUTE TO EXTRA ORDINARY RAW OFFICER

In memory of B. Raman, an extraordinary sleuth


He should have been appointed as the Deputy National Security Adviser when NSC was set up.


B. Raman
aratoga, US: When I joined our external intelligence service in 1976, after working for 17 years in Maharashtra, the name I often heard was that of the late B. Raman. Although he was posted abroad, he was always quoted as the "ideal" in our small organisation, established in 1968. When I succeeded him at his station in 1979, my colleagues at HQ sympathised with me as they felt that it would be a tall order to match his performance. When I arrived in his city, my first foreign assignment, he was very friendly, although we had never met earlier. He took care to brief me thoroughly on all difficult responsibilities in a city that did not speak English. Although a bachelor, he accompanied my wife to visit essential shopping places and guided her how to cope with the household and representational responsibilities.
I returned to New Delhi in 1983 and started knowing him better since some of our projects coincided. He was always chosen to head special projects by successive chiefs because of his clear thinking, thorough knowledge of target areas, capacity to execute operational plans, total loyalty, admirable penmanship, humungous ability to work very long hours and mastery over two European languages. He was the quintessential intelligence officer: always low profile, more listening than talking, but extracting essential information by incisive questioning. In intelligence life, an "operational" officer need not be a good "analyst" and vice versa. But Raman was an exception. He was outstanding in both fields. It was a pleasure to read his project reports and debriefing papers. In later years, I came to be closely associated with some of his very sensitive and sometimes dangerous "operations". He was always ready to volunteer for new assignments when others hesitated. In 1990, it was his turn to succeed me at HQ when I left for another foreign assignment.
He retired one year earlier than me (1994). There was a talk at the highest level that he would be given extension for continuing some of his very important projects. But typical of our decision making in such cases, extensions were not given on merit. Raman did not lobby for any post retirement government jobs and decided to shift to obscurity in Chennai. But the fire in him did not allow him to lead a quiet life. To our surprise, he started a "think tank" using his own funds. He used to circulate position papers and background notes on security issues before the internet was used as a cheaper option. These papers were very useful to the media, academics and even to our security agencies.
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Raman did not lobby for any post retirement government jobs and decided to shift to obscurity in Chennai. To our surprise, he started a “think tank” using his own funds.
They were read avidly by foreign governments too. In June 2003, I was invited by the Washington DC based "National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs" (NACSAA), a public interest foreign policy group, to address them on the post 9/11 terrorism intelligence integration problems. NACSAA's meetings were always attended by State Department officials, US think tank experts and South Asian academics. During this occasion a State Department official (I would not like to name him) who was going on a senior assignment to Islamabad told me that Raman's papers gave them much more data and analysis on terrorism emanating from that country than from our government sources.
Raman should have been the best candidate to be appointed as Deputy National security Adviser when our NSC was set up. He would have made that body purposeful. But none in the NDA government thought it necessary, although they tried to use some of Raman's frank views for partisan political propaganda. It was however gratifying that Governor "Gary" Saxena utilised his vast ability of penmanship in drafting his "task force" report on intelligence after the 1999 Kargil attack. A decade later, Naresh Chandra, former Cabinet Secretary, utilised Raman's services in preparing his "task force" report on security under the UPA-II government. Raman always volunteered for such "invisible" but nationally important assignments without caring for power or pelf.
I met him in Delhi in February 2012 when I was called by the Naresh Chandra Committee to give my views. He was recovering from cancer but spoke less on his illness. I did not then realise that this would be our last meeting.


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