Prime minister Manmohan Singh has put on hold big changes in the intelligence apparatus by not appointing the new chairman of the country’s super technical spy agency —- the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). The organisation fights cyber terrorism and was created six years ago to prevent the kind of intelligence failure that led to the Kargil war.
NTRO chairman KVSS Prasad Rao has retired, but the government has not chosen his successor. Last week, there was a meeting in the prime minister’s office to discuss a few names, but no decision was taken. Finally, PV Kumar, who has been with the NTRO since its inceptions was given charge “until further orders”.
The PMO, it is learnt, could not decide whether to put a scientist at the helm or let an astute administrator with a deep knowledge of intelligence take over (Rao was a scientist while Anil Chaudhary, its first chairman, was an IPS officer). In recent years, the government has come to depend on the NTRO more than other agencies.
Today, intelligence agencies such as NTRO, Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence have better coordination with each other than ever. This happened after the 26/11 terror attacks and the departure of national security adviser MK Narayanan and the induction of P Chidambaram as home minister.
It is learnt that Sanjeev Tripathi of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and a top-ranking lieutenant general from the signals are among others in the race for the coveted post of NTRO chairman. NS Sindhu and Ajit Lal of IB are also in the race. But the prime minister wants to shake up the entire apparatus since RAW chief KC Verma and IB chief Rajiv Mathur are supposed to retire in a couple of months.
The intervening period will give the government an opportunity to evolve a long-term strategy in this regard. If both are granted extensions, then a long-term team in the intelligence agencies will be functional.
The government has taken the ad-hoc approach to avoid problems. The NTRO chairman is ad-hoc from Monday, as is the Information Commission where AN Tiwari has been made CIC for three months. The PM has been advised by three governors, two of them former IB chiefs, to be careful about key appointments.
They have reminded him about the protest leave that half a dozen RAS cadre officers had taken when IPS officer Avadhesh Mathur was shifted from IB to RAW as its special director-general. The protest was over an “outsider” and a junior being given charge.
