How Neta JI(Subhash Chandra bosh) died? Who is the main face behind the scene of an emergency(1975)? Aarushi murder case, Rajeev Gandhi assassination, etc, etc. What do you think, what is the biggest secret of Independent India which is still just a piece of information on the internet but government never accepted it as it would destroy the pillars of democracy. I am talking about The Mitrokhin Archive, written by Vasili Mitrokhin.

After the Second World War that saw the Allied powers winning a trouncing victory against the Axis, ideological differences began to emerge between the USSR and USA. While the Soviets pushed Communism and Socialism in countries, the US spread democracy and capitalism through proxy civil wars in various countries.

The end of World War II led to the sun finally setting on the British Empire, with countries such as India gaining independence from the British Raj and many other colonies also being freed. The end of the Second World War also witnessed the grand era of espionage led by CIA and KGB; espionage agencies of the two powers.

What is The Mitrokhin Archive

If you have seen the film “The Tashkent Files” you would then know about this but if you didn’t know about the world’s most trusted leaked document by the Russian secret agency KGB, you need to read the full article to know the darkest secret of our Indian government. The “Mitrokhin Archive” is a collection of handwritten notes made secretly by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during him thirty years as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate. When he defected to the United Kingdom in 1992 he brought the archive with him. This archive is the most trusted document in the world to know the secrets behind the era of the cold war. But in India, there was never a discussion on it. I don't even think that except 5% of Indians, anybody knows about the documents and their content.

Why Mitrokhin Archive is not as famous in India

Till 2000, all the data which was available to us to read to know was only available by textbooks, print media and little bit digital media. All these bodies were partially or totally govern by the government and that’s why we didn’t know about the archive till social media and internet came into the picture. But the question arises here is why the Indian government wants to hide the facts and information written by the KGB agent which is accepted by all other major countries as proof of documentation. Let me tell you why.

In Mitrokhin Archives there is the whole chapter dedicated to India titled “Special Relationship with India”.

India is the model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government” with “scores of sources throughout the Indian government, in intelligence, counter-intelligence, defense and foreign ministries, the police …:- KGB, Russia

Now you are very curious about the facts which are given in the archives which became the darkest secret of the Indian Government. Let's look into those facts.

“Special Relationship with India”

After India gained independence in 1947, attention of the two espionage agencies diverted to India. Both the countries wanted to gain indirect control of the country, since it would give them control over a potential regional power. In the chapter ‘The Special Relationship With India’ (Part 1: The Supremacy of the Indian National Congress), Mitrokhin reveals that Joseph Stalin had a rather poor opinion of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India.

According to the archives, Stalin regarded Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi as “imperialist puppets” who bowed before the British and betrayed their people, helping the British tighten their hold over India. Despite his harsh words for the PM, Nehru often praised the Communist revolution of Soviet Russia and took inspiration from it.

After becoming Prime Minister, Nehru paid a diplomatic visit to the USSR, where each incident was ‘carefully staged’. According to Mitrokhin, the Soviets were eyeing India as a ‘playground’ for CIA and KGB agents. After Indira Gandhi (given the codename ‘Vano’ by Mitrokhin) became Prime Minister, the KGB managed to infiltrate deeper into the Indian government.

Mitrokhin reveals that Indira Gandhi was given 20 million rupees in exchange for crucial information, and to the surprise of Soviet chiefs, didn’t even return the bag in which she received the money. Like Nehru, Indira Gandhi too was made to believe that the Communist revolution of Russia was a ‘beaming light’ for the world, and often praised the ‘revolutionary’ principles followed in Soviet factories which were carefully staged during her visits.

The concerns arise when Mitrokhin claims that 7 cabinet ministers from the Congress party were elected due to Soviet funding during the regime of Indira Gandhi, while the defense minister during Nehru’s tenure (V. Krishna Menon) was also given Soviet backing. Mitrokhin Archives claim that due to Soviet backing and influence, former defense minister V. Krishna Menon purchased Soviet MiGs instead of British lightnings after his election campaign got funded by KGB in 1962 and 1967.

At several instances, the Intelligence Bureau of India had intercepted transfer of funds to the Party treasury of CPI from USSR, to which Nehru chuckled saying that the Soviets had “underestimated” India’s intelligence.

Brezhnev and Gandhi in Moscow, accompanied by other Soviet leaders.

However, he didn’t realise that the Soviets had penetrated deep into Indian embassies and were extracting information via their agents. As per Mitrokhin, many Indian diplomats abroad were seduced (and later blackmailed into revealing classified information) by female KGB agents called ‘sparrows’.

Two chapters titled The Special Relationship with India detail the scale of KGB operations in India and the extent of the penetration.The book claims that the maximum operational effort by the KGB in a Third World country during the Cold War was in India and that the number of KGB agents in India during the 1970s was the largest outside the Soviet Union. The more sensational disclosures include:

1: Indira Gandhi, code named VANO by the KGB, was sent suitcases of money meant for the Congress coffers. On one occasion, a secret gift of Rs 2 million from the Politburo to the Congress(R) was personally delivered by the KGB head in India Leonid Shebarshin. Another million rupees were given on the same occasion to a newspaper supporting Mrs. Gandhi.
2: In 1978, the KGB was running over 30 agents in India, 10 of whom were Indian intelligence officers.
3: In 1977, KGB files identified 21 noncommunist politicians (four union ministers) whose election campaigns were subsidized by the KGB.
4: The CPI was funded in many ways, including the transfer of money through car windows on Delhi roads.
5: During 1975, a total of 10.6 million roubles was spent on active measures in India designed to strengthen the support for Mrs. Gandhi and undermine her political opponents.
6: By 1973, the KGB had 10 Indian newspapers on its payroll plus a press agency. During 1975 the KGB planted 5,510 articles in Indian newspapers.

So basically everyone who was running India in the 70s was in control of KGB(Russia), not just in the control but also on the payroll (they were getting monthly salary by KGB). Even our prime ministers receive millions of funding for the election campaign from KGB and in return KGB control every single law, every single decision by the Indian government in the parliament.

Nehru and Khrushchev.

“identifying four Union ministers (in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet) and over two dozen MPs who were on the KGB payroll” : MK Dhar, former IB director

“We had twice interfered in Indian politics to the extent of providing money to a political party. Both times the money was given to the Congress party,which had asked for it. Once it was given to Mrs Gandhi herself.” :- Mitrochin Archives?

The Archives of Mitrokhin also claim that in the 1977 elections, campaigns of 21 non-communist leaders were financed by the KGB. Under the Nehru-Gandhi regime, espionage wasn’t uncommon in India and the country had become a playground for foreign espionage agencies.

In 1977, despite the efforts of the KGB Indira Gandhi was defeated. Even after the defeat, the KGB kept up its efforts to revive Indira’s faction of Congress (I) with more communist participation. For this a KGB agent under cover as Trud correspondent got into touch with her. Massive amount of funding was funnelled into various fronts floated by Congress (I) at the behest of the KGB. When Indira returned to power in 1980, she tried to renew her contact with a KGB operative Cherepakhin.

Whether Indira Gandhi was directly a KGB recruit and a Soviet spy is not clear from the available evidence as of now and may never be exactly known; but what is clear is that she received funds from dubious sources, floated many fronts for that specific purpose and many of her closest advisors and ministers were either KGB recruits or worked in collusion with them. Regarding the closeness of these Soviet recruits to her it is hard to believe that she did not know that they were foreign spies.

Even though, Indira Gandhi was not directly a Soviet spy, she did not care if the money to run her party came from the KGB. Neither did she care that in return the communists virtually made a coup of the entire nation and occupied every important position in all political, academic, judicial, executive and media institutions of the country.

Like, Christopher Andrews said: “The entire country was up for sale”, and Indira Gandhi sold it to the communists.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Rajiv Gandhi during Gorbachev's visit to India in 1988.

While countries like the UK and USA formed special committees to investigate the claims made by Mitrokhin, the UPA-1 government led by Congress party dismissed the claims and didn’t form any committee to investigate his claims. While the world looks at the archives as the most sensational counter-intelligence document, India did not perform a single enquiry into the archives.

The Congress party dismissed the claims without any investigation or enquiry. There is much to be revealed about the dark history of the Grand Old Party of India, and Mitrokhin’s archives show us the tip of the iceberg of the dirty history of India’s opposition party.

References:

Andrew, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin’s The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. Basic Books, 2005. Front Jacket
Oleg Kalugin’s Spymaster: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage against the West. Smith Gryphon, 1994. p. 126-7
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