Even as the Congress on Friday defended its vice-president Rahul Gandhi for revealing in public contents of a meeting with an intelligence officer, the issue has divided the intelligence community.
While two former chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau, Arun Bhagat and AK Doval, questioned the rationale of such a meeting with a politician not bound by the oath of secrecy, there are others who recounted incidents in the past, describing it a routine exercise to keep top political leadership abreast with national security issues.
“Only recently, the National Security Adviser had a series of meetings with BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and LK Advani on the issues related to Bangladesh water and land agreements, LoC tensions and earlier also on nuclear issues,” said a government source.
On Thursday, while maintaining that the BJP was igniting communal fires across the country, Rahul triggered a political storm by stating that “an intelligence officer came into my room and told me that people from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are talking to a few Muslims boys whose relatives were killed in Muzaffarnagar riots.”
Interestingly, the Congress had raised hackles against the then defence minister George Fernandes during the Kargil crises in 1999 after he sent top army commanders to the BJP headquarters to apprise BJP and RSS leaders about the preparedness and the then on-going operations.
Government sources told dna that Rahul was briefed by a UP state police official working in the state intelligence bureau. An IB official, preferring to remain off the record, said there were official and unofficial channels to brief political leaders. “Many times, senior political leaders plead for such meetings, particularly when there are issues related to countries like Pakistan, Nepal, China and Bangladesh,” said the source.
A former home secretary, who found nothing unusual in briefing Rahul, was, however, aghast at his going public. “Going public with this information means compromising your intelligence source and assets. Ideally, security agencies should have put tabs on such potential youth and rounded up those putting them in touch with ISI,” he said. Former IB chief Bhagat also agreed that people who occupy higher positions have to be very careful with their words.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Friday petitioned the Election Commission against Rahul’s statement.
The grounds on which it sought action refer to the code that prohibits acts that aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, criticism of other parties based on unverified allegations or distortions and appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes.
The Congress, however, maintained that the BJP was out to create a climate of hatred, communal strife. Party spokesman and MP Randeep Singh Surjewala defended Rahul meeting intelligence officer, saying that such informal briefing were nothing new as he himself used to get such briefings when he was an MLA.
While two former chiefs of the Intelligence Bureau, Arun Bhagat and AK Doval, questioned the rationale of such a meeting with a politician not bound by the oath of secrecy, there are others who recounted incidents in the past, describing it a routine exercise to keep top political leadership abreast with national security issues.
“Only recently, the National Security Adviser had a series of meetings with BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and LK Advani on the issues related to Bangladesh water and land agreements, LoC tensions and earlier also on nuclear issues,” said a government source.
On Thursday, while maintaining that the BJP was igniting communal fires across the country, Rahul triggered a political storm by stating that “an intelligence officer came into my room and told me that people from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are talking to a few Muslims boys whose relatives were killed in Muzaffarnagar riots.”
Interestingly, the Congress had raised hackles against the then defence minister George Fernandes during the Kargil crises in 1999 after he sent top army commanders to the BJP headquarters to apprise BJP and RSS leaders about the preparedness and the then on-going operations.
Government sources told dna that Rahul was briefed by a UP state police official working in the state intelligence bureau. An IB official, preferring to remain off the record, said there were official and unofficial channels to brief political leaders. “Many times, senior political leaders plead for such meetings, particularly when there are issues related to countries like Pakistan, Nepal, China and Bangladesh,” said the source.
A former home secretary, who found nothing unusual in briefing Rahul, was, however, aghast at his going public. “Going public with this information means compromising your intelligence source and assets. Ideally, security agencies should have put tabs on such potential youth and rounded up those putting them in touch with ISI,” he said. Former IB chief Bhagat also agreed that people who occupy higher positions have to be very careful with their words.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Friday petitioned the Election Commission against Rahul’s statement.
The grounds on which it sought action refer to the code that prohibits acts that aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, criticism of other parties based on unverified allegations or distortions and appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes.
The Congress, however, maintained that the BJP was out to create a climate of hatred, communal strife. Party spokesman and MP Randeep Singh Surjewala defended Rahul meeting intelligence officer, saying that such informal briefing were nothing new as he himself used to get such briefings when he was an MLA.
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