Government has announced the name of the new chief of Research and Analysis Wing, Mr. Rajinder Khanna. He will be taking over from incumbent Alok Joshi, who is set to retire on 31st of this month. Rajinder Khanna is a RAS officer from the 1978 batch. Over the past few years, he has been a part of many counter terrorist operations and is said to have an expertise in Pakistani terrorism, which is a very interesting prospect seeing the current scenario.
RAW has played a pivotal role in many secretive operations in the sub-continent region over the past few decades. It has helped India on numerous occasions.
Now the question which arises here is, will the new chief be able to live up to the reputation of RAW, and along with that, also overcome the shortcomings which it is currently facing. Problems like technology deficits, internal feuds and staff shortages have been stinging RAW for a while now. They need to be taken care off immediately.
Whenever our country has faced any serious threats, be it terrorism or war with a neighbouring country, the government has always sought help from RAW. Completely opposite to the conception of the general public, RAW has managed to deliver on more occasions than not. This secret agency has been serving our country in a brilliant manner over the past many years, and here are 5 examples which will prove that –
1 RAW stopping the assassination of Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed – When police caught Manoj Srivastava in Mumbai, they didn’t even know the magnitude of information he could possess. It was only when RAW started investigating Manoj, it was found that he was an agent of ISI, and what they had in mind was the assassination of Bangladesh PM. Manoj Srivastava also unravelled the plan of creating a security disaster in India, which India managed to avoid later ahead.
2 An undercover operation in Nepal to catch Yasin Bhatkal, India’s most wanted terrorist – The leader of this operation got a phone call from Intelligence Bureau that the suspect has been seen in Pokhra district but his look has been changed.
This was all what was required to trigger the mission. Because of the disguised look, the operation leader in Nepal didn’t receive positive signals from the headquarters but he didn’t give up. Special Operations Group (SOG) leader went on to put his career on line to catch Yasin Bhatkal, which later proved on to be a great help for the Indian government to gather information.
3 Operation Meghdoot – A company based in London which provided Indian troops with Arctic-weather gear, gave information to RAW that Pakistan has also brought the same gear. This led to the launch of Operation Meghdoot to capture the major peaks of the Siachen glacier. If RAW wouldn’t have gathered this information, the chances of Pakistan capturing those mountains would have increased tremendously.
4 Operation Chanakya – This operation was launched by RAW in Kashmir to infiltrate several ISI backed separatist groups. RAW managed to collect military evidence, infiltrate the area and convincingly prove the involvement of ISI in promoting and training the Kashmiri separatist groups. By the effective work of RAW in the Kashmir valley, militancy also got neutralized, leading to restoration of peace and harmony. Groups like Muslim Mujahideen and Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen were also created as a part of this operation, which were completely pro-Indian in nature.
5 Formation of government in Sikkim – In 1972, when there was complete chaos in the state of Sikkim, and people were protesting violently against their King. The difficult job of forming a pro-Indian government was given to RAW. It took RAW almost 2 to 3 years to bring the situation under control and put an end to monarchy. After the referendum was successfully passed to join Sikkim, RAW ultimately managed to form a government in the state in the year 1974, hence creating a healthy and peaceful state.
RAW has carried many more stupendous operations in the past and if I had to name every one of them and discuss it in detail then probably I would have to write a book on it. The new chief of RAW, Rajinder Khanna, has huge responsibilities on his shoulders. Let us see how far this organization goes under his two year tenure.
