Open Secrets: The Explosive Memoirs of an Indian Intelligence Officer (23 page)

At a personal level Veni and Jessie helped me in maintaining a steady dialogue with Biseto and I often derived pleasure from the fact that my good friends Dr. A. K. Ghosh and Dr. C. Chakravarty of the Naga Hospital, Kohima, were able to render valuable medical assistance to this fine Naga leader. Biseto was a fine specimen of an ideological revolutionary who carried in his person a dignified demeanour and a rare blend of human kindness. The Christian in him had overshadowed the revolutionary.

*

My visits to Phek in the Chakesang territory were triggered off by some complaints against my post in charge by the deputy chief of the village committee. The young Bengali speaking officer had succeeded in raising a couple of useful human assets and his general area coverage was satisfactory. The complaint arose out of his alleged fascination for a village girl.

I wasn’t unaware of this relationship. I had encouraged the officer to develop the girl’s liking for him. I precisely knew who the girl was. Moreover, it was natural for a young man to be attracted to a cute Chakesang belle. The Chakesang Nagas bear sharper features unlike most of the Mongoloid looking Naga people. Their fair skin carried a rouge glow and their facial features reminded a keen observer of the people of the Pacific Rim. The unique physical features of the Chakesang people intrigued me.

On this occasion Sunanda and our son accompanied me. We carried a crate of rum for the village chief, a few cans of condensed milk, tea packets and some scents and cosmetics. We had chosen the non-alcoholic gifts with a purpose.

On arrival at Phek we were felicitated at the village church, which was followed by a midday meal. The local commander of the Assam Rifles wanted us to spend the night in his unit guesthouse. We opted for the government rest house, which was not really equipped for a lady and a child.

Next morning we left for the house of the girl Mary (not real name) for whom my officer was supposed to have developed tenderness. On the way a village official informed me that we were going to the village home of Zashie Huire, the self styled President of the NFG, and Mary (name changed) happened to be his daughter.

Zashie’s home was not different from any other tin roofed and bamboo-thatch walled home of the village. It was a non-characteristic Naga home. The only Naga feature inside the single room home was the central fireplace, which was used both for cooking and heating purposes.

The lady of the house and the gem of a daughter of the Naga rebel leader cordially received us. We sat around the fire while Mary made tea and served a cup of milk to our son. We talked about war and peace and the drudgery of the common people. She complained of harassment by the Army patrols and frequent summons from the Assam Rifles camp. She did not mind visiting the camps but she positively resented the summons issued to her daughter.

We offered her the non-alcoholic gifts. She was excited over the condensed milk and Mary was surprised by the gifts of the cosmetics. That helped in melting of the ice and we spent over two hours together. I called the lady of the house to a corner in presence of Sunanda and asked her if she had any complaint about my officer. She did not have any, but commented that he should be more careful in visiting their home as the village elders did not appreciate the idea of an Indian getting mixed up with the daughter of the President of the NFG. I assured her of suitable action and left with promises of future meetings.

The visit flourished into a friendly relationship that finally fruited in my meeting with Zashie sometime in September 1973. We mostly met in the jungle hideouts of the rebel leader and on most of the occasions a well-meaning middle level Chakesang employee of the Nagaland government, acted as the cut out. I had five meetings with Zashie Huire during which we discussed the entire gamut of Indo-Naga relationship and the possibility of reaching a lasting peace agreement. He was the first Naga leader to give me clear hints that the movement was slipping out of the hands of Phizo and the self-exiled leader in London was cut off from reality. There was a developing trend in the underground that opposed the growing ties with China. He was of the clear view that Muivah and Isak were pushing the Nagas to the Chinese lap and Phizo had not succeeded in reaching a formal political and military protocol with the Chinese leaders. He felt that Muivah and Isak were acting as geopolitical pawns of China and Pakistan. This could, he opined, lead to another fissure in the underground movement. He was not keen to invite the atheist Chinese Communists to the land of the Christ.

In Zashie I found an open-minded person who was not imprisoned behind ideological fences. A devout Christian, he believed in the basic values of human relationship and often referred to the bloody engagements with the armed forces as services to his Lord. He managed to speak a smattering of Bengali and he enjoyed my convoluted Nagamese pronunciation. We maintained a steady friendship and he appreciated that the Army had stopped harassing his wife and daughter after I took up the matter with M. Ramunny and S. C. Dev. Both of them appreciated my foray into the heart of the Naga movement, though I did not share with them the details of my discussions with Zashie.

SWIMMING WITH THE PEOPLE

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

Abraham Lincoln.

Professionally 1973 was a meaningful year.

My forays into the inner structure of the NNC, NFG and the Naga Army were motivated by the urges for generating impeccable sources of information as well as for understanding the Naga mind and the complicated ideological contours of history that were frozen inside Naga psyche. I believed that the process of continued interaction would help breaking that frozen images of history and upward and downward flow of ideas that had transcended the actions initiated by A. Z Phizo.

My efforts were naturally diverted to other chains of events that had divided the Naga movement. The Kukhato, Kaito, Scato and Zuheto Sema faction had broken away from the Phizoite group and had declared the formation of the Revolutionary Government of Nagaland (RGN).

The return of the Naga delegates from Delhi after meeting Indira Gandhi in October 1967 did not satisfy the Federal group. The agreement earlier arrived at had offered everything except independence. The
Tatar Hoho
blamed Kukhato Sukhai for selling out Naga interests. It passed a no-confidence motion against the Sema leader and he was removed from the post of
Ato Kilonsar
(Prime Minister). Earlier Kaito Sema, the chief of the Naga Army, was removed to make way for firebrand Angami Mowu. Around the same time Mehasieu Angami replaced Scato Swu, as the President of the Federal Government. Both Mowu and Mehasieu were from Khonoma, Phizo’s village. Mehasieu appointed Z. Ramyo, a Tangkhul, as his Home Minister. Ramyo, a first class Law graduate and a keen footballer had cast his lot with Phizo in 1957. The Tangkhul influx was fortified by the appointment of Thuingaleng Muivah as the General Secretary of the NNC. A Master of Arts in political science Muivah was restless, ambitious and more ruthless than Ramyo. He was initially under the influence of Rano and Lungshim Shaiza. But, it is understood that he had used them to go past the excellent performance of Z. Ramyo. Muivah had always nursed personal ambition to project himself as the topmost Naga leader acceptable beyond his own tribe. There were reports in circulation that some high official of the MI Directorate cultivated Muivah till he was appointed NFG emissary to the Peoples Republic of China.

Events had taken a worse turn after the assassination of Kaito in Kohima town in 1968. The Semas retaliated by kidnapping Mehasieu and Ramyo. The Semas announced formation of a new political entity, Council of Naga People. Kukhato Sukhai was elected as President of the new party. Scato Swu was elected as the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government. This was a breakthrough for the Nagaland government headed by Hokise Sema and the Union government in Delhi.

The Revolutionary group aligned itself with the Indian Army and the officials of the Indian government. Hokise, himself a Sema, wooed the Sema group and pressed for a settlement with them to the exclusion of the Federal group, which had in the meantime veered closer to Pakistan and China.

The Sema faction of the underground surrendered to the government of India on August 1973 at Zunheboto. The elation in Hokise camp was not shared by some of his ministerial colleagues and NNO members. They aligned themselves with the UDF and the Federal group. Scato Swu was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha, in which the IB had played a big role. Zuheto took up an assignment with the Border Security Force.

The task of maintaining close liaison with Scato and Zuheto devolved upon me soon after I took over at Kohima. Scato was a fine human being with sincere commitment to the idea of aligning the Naga interest with India instead of China and Pakistan. A proud Sema as he was Scato resented the Angami, Chakesang and Tangkhul domination over the Naga movement. While he maintained steady contact with M. Ramunny, S. C. Dev on the civil side and the Divisional Commander of the 8th Mountain Division, Scato had virtually become my houseguest. He preferred to stay with us instead of the state guesthouse at the minister’s hill. Sunanda had to cook chicken and pork dishes in Naga style with very little condiments. She liked Scato, who had adopted her as his sister and presented her with a traditional Sema dress.

The affairs of the Revolutionary Government kept me equally busy as I was assigned the task of fine-tuning the rough edges of the talks. The government of India had suddenly developed a miserly attitude and dithered from earlier commitments to set up an example by appropriately rehabilitating the ordinary cadre of the Revolutionary set up. Both Ramunny and Dev were in favour of giving the beleaguered and isolated Sema group a fair deal. Their efforts were not matched by Delhi. Often I was presented with awkward situation of being surrounded by the armed soldiers of Revolutionary Army and threatened for my alleged reneging from the promises made by certain officials in Delhi. I was aware that some of the top advisors of Indira Gandhi were not impressed by the coup staged by the Semas. They still basked in the glory of the Bangladesh events and had very little respect for the distant Nagas.

Scato, at one point of dark depression, toyed with the idea of patching up with the Federal group and had sent feelers to Mehasieu and Ramyo. I happened to get a scent of this from Ramyo and shared it with Delhi and requested R.P. Joshi to recommend to Delhi to immediately arrange for Scato’s personal rehabilitation. His nomination to the Rajya Sabha averted a possible ugly situation.

Scato was not a nowhere man. The Sema revolt against the dominating attitude of the Angamis did not end in personal gains for a few self-seeking leaders. The event has become an integral part of the Naga history and its linkages with India. It would not be proper to claim that the events in Bangladesh, Sheikh Abdullah’s return to the so-called mainstream, the merger of Sikkim and the Pokharan atomic implosion and the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi had propelled the Naga leaders to come forward for another round of peace talks. The Sema schism in the Naga movement had weakened the underground edifices considerably though some people would like to sell the idea that the Sema purging had brought the Phizoites closer to the Chinese and Pakistani forces operating from within Bangladesh and several other foreign well wishers.

War alone was not rampaging in the verdant slopes of Nagaland. The experiment with an elected democratic government at Kohima and initiation of economic developments had started sprouting genuine desire for progress for which peace was a foremost requirement. The vast majority of the underground leaders and the government of India understood that peace should be given another try. Several NNO leaders and Church activists were active on this front. L.P. Singh, the veteran bureaucrat, who had taken over as the governor, understood well the imperatives of a peace offensive. M.L Kampani, R. P. Joshi, M. Ramunny, H. Zopianga, and S.C. Dev, grassroots experts in the Naga affairs, ably assisted him.

It would not be proper to highlight my role in these efforts that culminated in the Shillong Accord. But my silence should not be construed as my divorce from the history of Nagaland in the making. It is better to lock away such details. All that I can assert that my subterranean occupational linkages with Ramyo, Biseto, Zashie and a couple of other important underground leaders of Nagaland and Manipur had helped the policy makers to understand the Naga mind better. I was extremely busy during the preparatory period running between the over ground and the underground. The best expression of this was from Zashie, who had later invited me to his daughter’s marriage with a personal note of thanks. As an intelligence operator of the IB I did not expect an out of turn reward. I did my job to the satisfaction of the bosses and the political leaders. I am not in a position to disclose the exact utilisation of the assets of the IB for stabilising the peace talks that had culminated in the Shillong Accord.

*

February 1974 brought in its wake a season of change, a major change in the political complexion of the state and in our personal lives.

The emergence of the United Democratic Front in July 1972 had come with the poser of offering an alternative to the NNO. The migration of T. N. Angami and few other stalwarts of the NNO to the UDF had bolstered the acceptability of the party to democratic minded and fence sitting sections of the Nagas. Hokise did a great job in containing armed underground activities. However, uninterrupted stint of power had blinded Hokise to the aspirations of the people other than fire fighting actions against the undergrounds. They wanted peace in as much as they wanted economic development and lessening of stinking corruption. They genuinely thought that change of faces in the over ground politics could probably change the ambience for better economic diagnosis and prognosis.

Another cruel realty was that the funds poured in by Delhi were going only to the pockets of the NNO leaders and their political opponents were yet to taste the smell of big money that had flooded the tiny state. It’s not certain if democracy in India offers equal opportunity to its people. But it offers more than equal opportunity to the political class to share the booty amongst themselves at suitable intervals through the process of elected democracy. The emergence of the political class in independent India has defeated all classic definitions of class struggle.

Whatever it is, the victory of the UDF in February 1974 elections had left no one in doubt that it was simply not the emergence of a pro-underground power. It was indeed the emergence of a parallel political class that gave a glimmer of hope of better socialistic distribution of funds allocated by Delhi. No common Naga hoped that his stream would be flooded with honey and manna simply because another shade of political forced had occupied the ministers’ hill. They suffered from no illusion that the UDF was capable of taking them to the dawn of ‘independence.’

The sarcasm apart, in a closely contested election the NNO had bagged 23 seats against 25 by the UDF. Vizol, a moderate pro-underground leader, managed to garner support of seven independent MLAs and formed a new cabinet on February 26.

Beyond the humdrum of political developments and insurgency a very major happy incident on February 21 had filled up our home with happiness. Our second son Mainak was born at Naga Hospital, Kohima. I owe it to Dr. S. P. Ghsoh of Naga Hospital and Tara
didi
, wife of boss R. P. Joshi for the smooth arrival of the child under very rudimentary and almost unhygienic conditions.

Mostly the Naga families visited the Naga Hospital. The ‘Indians’ visited the Assam Rifles or Army Hospital at Jakhama. We had decided to stay put with the Naga fate, simply because we believed in Dr. Ghosh and Tara
didi
. Busy as I was with the Naga insurgent groups and the state assembly election I could devote very little time to Sunanda. But the brave lady had enormous inner strength to weather the storms both at home and outside. She too did not like to run to the elite Army hospital. That’s how, even around the midnight of February 21, scores of Naga friends were present at Naga hospital to greet the newborn baby. Their kindness had overwhelmed us. We were not the VIPs of the day. But we had made lots of good friends and the pile of Naga shawls around Sunanda’s maternity bed had strengthened that tender relationship. We fervently hoped that our son would be as tough, bold, honest, and creative as most of the Nagas were.

My work demanded hosting of frequent diplomatic style parties at home. Kohima did not offer the usual advantage of posh hotels and restaurants. We were left with no alternative but to entertain the politicians, bureaucrats and other professional friends at home. This involved strenuous involvement of the lady of the house. Sunanda excelled in throwing lavish parties and helping me to reach the heart of the professional targets through their stomach. The Nagas, as I said, love their families and they had not yet learnt the sophistication of attending home parties without their families. That made Sunanda’s job more pleasant and complicated. We had prepared a ready reckoner and had listed the preferences of the wives and children of the different ministers, other political figures and the bureaucrats. This helped us in serving the correct drinks and food to the correct guests and procuring the correct Christmas gifts for the devout Christians that the Nagas are.

Soon after our second son’s birth I requested Delhi for a transfer to Calcutta. We thought our home city would be the best place to educate the children and bring them up in the ambience of Bengali culture. Destiny, if there is some such amorphous entity, must have squirmed her lips in disapproval. I was not ‘destined’ to be in Bengal, though I had made several efforts to work and flourish on my own soil.

*

The events after February `74 had generated panic reaction in Delhi. Adverse economic situation had forced Delhi to approach the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for loan, which was granted with rigid conditions. India was forced to put a break to its soviet type socialist economy. Unemployment and industrial unrest plagued the governance scenario. January `74 had witnessed the growth of the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat, which led to the dissolution of the corrupt Chiman Bhai Patel ministry and imposition of President’s rule. Indira hinted about foreign hands being responsible for the growing unrest. But that did not put a stop to the disenchantment of the people who mobilised around Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), the last of the visionaries, to build up a mass movement. The cadre of the Hindutwa protagonist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and charismatic socialist leaders like George Fernandez joined him. The IB rated him as a foreign spy, because of his linkages with the Socialist International and several surveillance measures were adopted to keep a tag on his activities. The government responded by harshly implementing the Maintenance of Internal of Security Act (MISA).