#30 The Real Story of an Elegant but Inconspicuous Spymaster of India : RN Kao

Try to read this as an article being narrated in the form of an interesting story. You will get known to the personality being discussed in this article in the coming lines. So, the story begins.

In 1996, the 25th anniversary of the birth of Bangladesh was being celebrated all over India.

In a meeting, a Bangladeshi journalist saw a tall, smart and attractive man in the back seat of the hall, he came to him and said "Sir, you should have been there on the stage among everyone, because of you 1971 was possible."

The charming and shy man replied "No, I did nothing, the people sitting on the stage deserve all the praise."

Being recognized, the man was so upset that he quietly got up and left the hall. The name of this man was Rameshwar Nath Kao : The father of India's intelligence agency RAW or R&W (Research and Analysis Wing).

Kao sahab : A man of utmost grace

Kao was a fiercely private man and was rarely seen in public. He never allowed himself to be photographed, that's the reason behind his rare photographs. Kao was a consummate conversationalist, a patient listener, listening each word with care and never gave impression that he was not listening. He knew Persian, Sanskrit and Urdu so well and could speak fluently all these languages. In his conversations he mostly spoke in Urdu with Lucknowi accent, though he spoke good Hindi also. He would never give affront in conversation. Kao sahab was tall, handsome, elegant but shy. He was always dressed immaculately, with fetish for cleanliness. Kao was only six when his father passed away. It was his uncle Triloki Nath Kao who brought him up. During his Masters' course in English literature at Allahabad University in 1938-1940 Kao stayed at Amar Nath Jha Hostel, which has been home to many important bureaucrats of India.

Former Additional Director of RAW Jyoti Sinha who worked with him recalls "What a sophistication he had, what an impressive way of talking, he didn't say such things to anyone that would hurt anyone, I liked one of his phrases very much, he said look 'When someone opposes you, then why kill him by giving poison. Yes, he should be killed by giving a lot of honey' and he should mold this in his thinking, at that time we were very young officers and we used to hero worship him."

Rameshwar Nath Kao, a Kashmiri Brahmin, was born on 10 May, 1918 in Varanasi. In 1940, he was commissioned in Imperial Police and allotted UP cadre. On June 3, 1947 he was deputed to I.B. In 1948, he was appointed its assistant director.

RN Kao behind Indira Gandhi.

In 1948, Indira Gandhi decided to set up a spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in India, modeled on the CIA and MI-6, for the country's external intelligence and Kao was made its first director. RAW proves its usefulness in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, Kao's intelligence system was so strong that he even knew the day on which Pakistan was going to attack India.

Anand Kumar Verma, the former director of RAW and who knew Kao closely, once said "At that time, we had received information that it was going to happen on this date, the information had come through wireless, there was a slight mistake in the date of its recording, it was pre-dated by two days, so here when all people were warned Air Force, etc., so nothing happened for two days and everyone was on high alert and they were tired, then their chiefs said to the chief of RAW, how much belief do you have in your words, two days had already passed and nothing happened, so they were told to wait for one more day and that day was the real one which was the third day, on that it happened. This secret agent was in a good place and had communication equipment through which he did wireless communication.

Rameshwar Nath Kao also had a tremendous role in the merging of Sikkim in India, he accomplished this work with the help of only four officers.

R.K. Yadav who wrote the book on RAW says "Indira Gandhi, after the Bangladesh war, she had so much self-confidence that she has to resolve whatever problems were around us, so in the beginning of Sikkim's operation, it happened that Chogyal had married an American lady and CIA's interference had started there, then Kao Saheb had given a suggestion to Indira Gandhi that we should merge it with India, only two or three people were involved in this - P.N. Haqsar, R.N. Kao. Only three officers were involved with Kao and Indira Gandhi, even I'm telling you an inside secret that Kao's shadow used to be K. Shakaran Nair, he was also not involved in this operation, it was a very closely guarded secret operation, it was a bloodless coup and the biggest thing that happened in this operation was that it happened under the nose of China on the Chinese forces border. But, Indira Gandhi was so confident after the victory of 1971 that she didn't care about China at all at that time and got the area of 3000 square miles merged with India.

Indira Gandhi's security was managed by Kao Saheb at that time.

A warm handshake with Atal ji.

Inder Malhotra, former editor of the Times of India recalls an interesting incident which Kao Saheb told him "We had gone to Australia, there was a Commonwealth meeting, a man from our delegation came to me that Sir, Australia's security man who is at the hotel appointed for the Prime Minister who accompanies her till the door, he wants to meet you, so I called him. He said, Sir, I want to tell you one thing, your Prime Minister is not only a great leader of a great country, she is also a very very gracious lady, she is my responsibility here, my job is from the moment she comes down from her car till I pick her bag, I'm responsible for her life I can say but I'm telling you when the leader gets down from the car or steps into the car, that is the most dangerous moment terrorist can shoot her from whatever place they can manage, so both my hands should be free for his protection. When we told madam Prime Minister, madam understood, and when we came back to India, the same practice continued.”

When Indira Gandhi lost the election in 1977 and Morarji Desai came into power, he had the illusion that Kao Saheb was also involved in the excesses of the emergency.

A staunch Bureaucrat.

R.K. Yadav, author of RAW Truth tells that there was a heated meeting between Kao and Morarji - "Kao Saheb once told me that I was on extension and when Morarji became the Prime Minister, when he went to him for a courtesy call. When I reached near, a gentlemen wearing a kurta was sitting outside and as soon as he entered he said that he is the killer of emergency and then he tried to jump on me, then his private secretary stopped him that this is wrong, then Morarji said to me that you have done many excesses in emergency and I'm expelling you from here, then Kao Saheb said that I have not done any excesses, you should inquire about it properly. Then Kao Saheb said that the way he was treated, is not right, Morarji remained silent on it, this silence meant that it was stage managed and it was done. Then he went to meet home minister Charan Singh, Charan Singh said that I'm inquiring as to what excesses you have done in emergency, so a S.P. Singh committee was constituted and S.P. Singh was the son-in-law of Charan Singh and an IPS officer too, that committee submitted its report in six months and absolutely exonerated RAW that it had nothing to do with emergency."

Inder Malhotra once noted that Kao was going on a trip to Mauritius again and again and he himself asked Kao this question - "I asked when we were in the service, I said, Kao Saheb that you are going to Mauritius again and again, then he replied, Inder Malhotra Saheb, don't write this in your newspaper but tell me if I have to keep an eye on Giga Garcia, so from which place I can do so where all the facilities are available to me?"

Kao was fond of wearing the finest clothes, most of his suits were tailored in London.

R.K. Yadav remembers - "See, even after his retirement, I usually saw him in a tie, wearing a suit but sometimes he used to wear kurta pajama made of khadi and the dress suited him because his physique was such that his stomach was completely inside, he was athletically built because he kept a horse since he was young, he used to dress very meticulously, some bureaucrats were very envious of him because 'He was the best dressed man of those times'."

A Gentleman.

Kao was not just an intelligence officer who followed tradition, his method of working was completely different from others.

Former Additional Director of RAW Rana Mukhejee says - "He used to say that we cannot be stuck in papers or files all the time, we used to sit somewhat quietly and think with our feet on the table, thinking that we have to take two or three steps forward. We used to think about the future plans and used to keep our political leaders updated with the future prognosis, so all these things were not available from the files, this was a great quality of his foresight, he could see in advance what could happen in future."

In 1982, when Count Alexandre de Marenches, the head of France's External Intelligence Agency SDECE, was asked to name the world's five best Intelligence Chiefs of the 70s, he also named Kao among those five people. Then he took Kao's name and said 'This man is a wonderful combination of physical and mental fitnesse, yet so shy to talk about himself, his friends and his achievements."

Kao at right most with colleagues.

Retirement Years

Kao lived in utmost grace. He was self-effacing, never spoke to the media but kept in touch with old contacts from Moscow, London, Tehran and Beijing. He never sought gubernatorial assignments or any role. He maintained a lively interest in the world around him till his last moment. He was a voracious reader of Indian newspapers but disliked their superficiality and fragmented character. He invariably reacted to good, though provoking articles. Kao had tastefully done up iron sculpting, Gandhara paintings and loved the hobby of raising horses. Kao passed away in the early hours of 20th January, 2002 and was cremated at the Nigambodh Ghat cremation grounds. Whenever he was asked about some sensitive issue, his reply used to be 'These matters will go with me to the funeral pyre.'

Old but Gold.

Kao’s funeral.

How much India got benefited from Kao's personal connections with foreign Intelligence Chiefs is rarely known to the public.

George Bush Sr., the former President and Head of CIA, gifted him a small statue of an American Cowboy, later when Kao's followers came to be called as Kaoboys, he managed a fiber glass replica of that statue and used it for RAW as it was installed in the reception hall of the headquarters of RAW."