CIA files: Despite keeping tabs, US was unaware of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency plans | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

CIA files: Despite keeping tabs, US was unaware of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency plans

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Jan 23, 2017 11:09 AM IST

In the days leading up to the 1975 Emergency, the US Intelligence had little or no information of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s intention to rule by decree, according to declassified documents posted on the Central Intelligence Agency’s online database.

In the days leading up to the 1975 Emergency, the US Intelligence had little or no information of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s intention to rule by decree, according to declassified documents posted on the Central Intelligence Agency’s online database.

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) declared India to be in a state of emergency, allowing her to jail her political opponents in 1975.(Bettmann Archive)
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) declared India to be in a state of emergency, allowing her to jail her political opponents in 1975.(Bettmann Archive)

These are among 930,000 documents made accessible on CREST, the CIA’s records archive. The trove contains 12 million pages of dispatches, memoranda and records of briefings documenting the agency’s spycraft dating as far back as the 1940s.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Early intelligence bulletins on South Asia were mostly regurgitated news reports offering very little new insight. Though India’s nuclear programme was closely monitored, day-to-day briefings were mundane and didn’t cover a lot of ground.

Highlights

A trove of 930,000 declassified documents, running into more than 12 million pages, recently posted online by the CIA provides fascinating insights into the way the US spy service covered India.

Hindustan Times did a deep dive into the documents to find out how the CIA tracked important events and personalities in India over a period of more than five decades beginning in the late 1940s.

After Indira Gandhi’s conviction by the Allahabad high court for campaign violations in June 1975, the CIA bulletins are replete with news reports and suggested she would resign from her position.

According to a memorandum dated June 18, 1975, “Mrs. Gandhi would not wish the job to go” even temporarily to her closest allies such as YB Chavan and Jagjivan Ram. It stated she would be “especially reluctant to have Ram take over” because she deemed him too ambitious and unlikely to give her job back.

According to cables released by Wikileaks in 2013, the CIA had gained a source within the prime minister’s household between 1975 and 1977. The CIA dispatches do not corroborate this source, but information after the declaration of Emergency was more specific, suggesting improved intelligence gathering in New Delhi.

By August 8, 1975, the CIA believed that “Gandhi’s greatest asset is her willingness to play politics with few holds barred. She admits she’s not inhibited by her father’s stern sense of propriety. ‘My father,’ she says ‘was a saint who strayed into politics, I am not of the same stuff.’”

This mirrored a 1972 assessment of her political guile, which stated that “she has attempted to single out key individuals, divide them from their fellows, and – when the stage was set – move swiftly to topple them from power.”

As the situation in India escalated during the Emergency, an extensive 23-page dossier on Indira Gandhi’s close aides was filed in October 1975. Most of it has been redacted, but the summation suggests she was becoming more reclusive and kept most of her cabinet at arm’s length.

“Mrs. Gandhi is more powerful today than ever before, but she also remains isolated,” it states. Although she relies on the counsel of her close aides, “she will continue to make all major policy and many minor operation decisions”.

Further Intelligence bulletins are accompanied by detailed annexures about the Prime Minister and the rise of her son, Sanjay Gandhi, who was described as “a political novice” with “a penchant for browbeating”.

As a result, the CIA began to examine the involvement of her son in larger policy decisions. The USSR, in particular, was “unhappy over Sanjay’s growing role” in his mother’s inner circle. But even Sanjay had limits to advancement. “He does not control his mother, she continues to make all the decisions,” the CIA said.

Read More:

US wanted ‘nuclear emissary’ to reduce India-Pakistan tensions, CIA papers reveal

From Subhas Chandra Bose to Sai Baba, how the CIA tracked India

The CIA believed as far back as 1948 that Subhas Chandra Bose was dead

CIA thought Sathya Sai Baba’s movement would become a ‘worldwide religion’

Revealed: How CIA tried to gather intel before 1971 India-Pakistan war

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch Now!

Get Current Updates on India News, Narendra Modi Live Updates along with Latest News and Top Headlines from India and around the world
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Anand Katakam was part of Hindustan Times’ nationwide network of correspondents that brings news, analysis and information to its readers. He no longer works with the Hindustan Times.

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Sunday, March 03, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On