Knowing the power & powerful

...by the way

 

Knowing the power & powerful

 

when intelligence agencies heads retire, the Government is always in a fix as they know a lot about the system, and knowledge, it is said, is power. So their services are utilised as members of think-tanks, appointing them as Governors or sending them as heads of various diplomatic missions. Today, there are many ex-Intelligence chiefs and Army Chiefs whose services are valuable and they are working in different fora of the Government. But, the problem arises when some top officer is not adjusted due to various reasons and he starts lobbying to grab a coveted post. Sanjeev Tripathi, the former Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), retired in December 2012. He has been sitting at home since then, in a manner of speaking. Sources now tell us that Tripathi, the son-in-law of G S Bajpai, again a former chief of R&AW, wants to be the chief of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) or Governor of some State. Gfiles carried a diary item pointing out how Sanjeev Tripathi became the chief of R&AW in December 2010. KC Verma, the then Chief of R&AW, had mysteriously resigned in December 2010, six weeks before his scheduled retirement. Tripathi at that time was heading the Aviation Research Centre and had only one week left for retirement. It was also the period when it was decided that two spy planes would be bought from the Israeli company, Elta. The US company, Raytheon, which Elta beat to grab the deal, complained to the Prime Minister about ‘irregularities’. A three-member team, headed by the then Defence Secretary, Pradeep Kumar, was constituted to inquire into the issue. This pushed the deal into the ground, with the delivery of the planes yet to take place. But, as it always happens, Tripathi knows too much and it is this that helped him become the R&AW chief and may even get him another coveted post in the not-so-distant future...Read More