Rameshwar Nath Kao

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Rameshwar Nath Kao (1918-2002) was a legendary spymaster and the first chief of India's spy agency R&AW from its founding in 1969 to 1977, holding the position of Secretary(Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which was held by all future R&AW directors. He had also, during the course of his long career, served as the personal security chief to Prime Minister Nehru and as security adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

[edit] Early years

Kao was born in the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh on May 10, 1918 belonged to Kashmiri Brahmin family who immigrated from Srinagar district. He was brought up by his uncle Pandit Triloki Nath Kao. Encouraged to pursue education, he had his early schooling in the city of Baroda, in the Bombay Presidency. Here he did his matriculation in 1932 and intermediate in 1934. In 1936, he attained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lucknow University. He then chose to pursue a Masters degree in English Literature at Allahabad University. During this period he is believed to have stayed at the Amar Nath Jha hostel, which is now famous for some of the most important bureaucrats of modern India, who stayed their in this time period. He completed his Master of Art some time before 1940.^[1]

Kao then, for a while, took up a job in a cigarette company floated by Pt. Jag Mohan Narain Mushran, the then Chief Justice of the Benaras State.^[2] He also took classes in Law in Allahabad University but left when he joined the Indian Imperial Police in 1940 after passing a competitive examination. His first posting was in Kanpur as an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

[edit] Career

Kao was deputed to the Intelligence Bureau (I.B.), on the eve of Independence when it was being reorganised under B.N. Mullik. He was put in charge of VIP security, which included the task of looking after the security ring of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He was one of the agents asked to probe the air crash of the jetliner, Kashmir Princess, that took place just before the Bandung Conference. Sometime in the late 50s he was sent to Ghana to help the then government of prime minister Kwame Nkrumah set up an intelligence and security organisation there. After the intelligence failure of the Indo-China war, on his return, he was made the first director of the newly formed Aviation Research Centre at Charbatia, Orissa, that chiefly concentrated on TECHINT collection.

The Sino-Indian War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 caused the restructuring of the country's intelligence apparatus. The IB was considered to have become something of a behemoth. In 1968, the Research and Analysis Wing(RAW) was created as India premier external intelligence agency. As its founder-chief, simultaneously being made Secretary(Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat, Kao was given the task to built up RAW from scratch. He spent the next nine years as the head of this organisation, for which he is now remembered. Today, the people who served under him during this time were called 'Kaoboys'.^[3] During this period RAW played a very important role in the liberation of Bangladesh. They gave logistic support to the Mukti Bahini during the initial stages of the war. During the 1971 war, intelligence was thorough enough that the Indian Air Force could bomb the room in which the East Pakistan Cabinet was in session. Naval commandos were able to blow every single Pakistani ship in the Chittagong harbour. Kao is credited to have, in only three years of RAW's existence, helped in bringing about the creation of a new nation.^[4]

Kao maintained close connection with the new nation. In May 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sent him to Dhaka to warn Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of his impending assassination by some in his Army.^[3] RAW also played an important task in the annexation of Sikkim in 1973, and making it the 22nd Indian State. In 1977, the government of prime minister Indria Gandhi's was toppled when the Congress(I) was defeated in the elections by the Janata Party. The close relationship he shared with Indira Gandhi and the suspicions harboured by the new government of Morarji Desai meant that Kao had to resign from his post.