New Delhi
30 May 2008
A Western intelligence agency had obtained information toward the end of April
2008 pointing to the potential of terrorist attacks in Jaipur and a number of other Indian
cities but either the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence
agency, ignored the warning or did not view it to be important enough to act upon,
according to a report published by the Middle East Times.
According to the May 29 report, the intelligence was passed to Chaturvedi despite
reservations by Western agencies of sharing information with him. However, the
information was not shared with other Indian agencies due to a combination of factors,
including but not limited to Chaturvedi's deteriorating health, the report says, citing an
anonymous "source familiar with the dossier".
On May 13, over 60 people were killed and over 200 injured when serial blasts rocked
Jaipur's walled city.
The report by Claude Salhani goes on to give explicit details about Chaturvedi's medical
condition, how he was "admitted for a week to Escorts Heart Institute and Research
Centre ... and diagnosed with pericardial effusion, which is the build-up of fluid around
the heart resulting in hypertension, severe chest pain, and difficulty in breathing."
Salhani, who wrote similar articles in the Middle East Times about Chaturvedi and RAW
in December 2007 and February 2008, says the "bumbling Chaturvedi" also happened to
leave classified documents in a non-secure location while in a meeting abroad.
Incidentally, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier recently was forced to resign
after admitting that he left sensitive government documents at the home of his girlfriend.
A former RAW hand, who retired in the '90s, told this newspaper that leaks of this nature
are disturbing and troublesome from the security point of view. "My recommendation to
National Security Adviser MK Narayanan would be to look into the matter and take
remedial measures. This is a worrisome trend and it will have a highly demoralising,
cascading effect on the agency," the retired official said.
A source said the visible arms of the Government -- the Cabinet Secretariat and the
National Security Adviser -- may want to step in since the RAW does not have a public
relations machinery. "Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States,
the RAW does not have an PR arm. Even if one per cent of all of it is true, it is not good,"
the source elaborated.
Earlier reports published by the Middle East Times documented a "series of
embarrassing faux pas" by Mr Chaturvedi, including how he did not come up to scratch
when the Prime Minister sought a briefing ahead of his visit to China, and how New Delhi
was caught on the wrong foot by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's decision to
declare a state of emergency.
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