Come of it Mr. Jaswant Singh

Is Jaswant Singh a traitor for not relieving the spy in P.V. Narashima Rao's PMO office for which he claims he has proof?

I personally like Jaswant Singh because of what he has done for the country. Despite that and all his protestations, I think he belongs in that category.

He should have revealed who the spy was 10 years ago when he got the information. Not only did he not reveal the information, he did nothing to pursue the matter or prosecute the person when he was the defence, foreign, and finance ministers during various times for five years in PM Vajpayeeji government after he got the information about the spy in former PMO.

It is shear stupidity to offer all the excuses he gives now for not having revealed the name and for contined obfuscation.

"The former Foreign Minister also disclosed to the media that the mole was close to the then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and he was a civil servant not a politician.

"The civil servant was in such a high position that he was privy to a lot of information," Jaswant singh said, adding the person concerned was no more in office or the country.

The former External Affairs Minister, however, evaded a clear-cut reply when asked repeatedly why the subsequent NDA government allowed the civil servant to go scot-free despite him having leaked sensitive information." Link

Update (July 25, 2006): IBNLive reports Jaswant Singh revealed the spy as Dr V S Arunachalam to BJP leaders in a closed door session.

"Dr V S Arunachalam served five prime ministers - including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao - and 10 defence ministers in different capacities like defence scientific advisor, and as secretary of the department of Defence Research and Development, in his official assignments at the Centre from 1982 onwards."

The next day Jaswant denies Arunachalam is the man. We are still in the dark.

Update (July 26, 2006): S. Gurumurthy says there were two spies - not one - in PM P.V. Narashimha Rao's government, and that the names were known in 1997. He describes how the two people worked with Rockefeller Foundation and Carter Center to enable a Kashmir solution using the than soft PM I.K. Gujral to sign on the dotted lines in 1997 without any official involvement of the either India or Pak governments. And the two also worked hand-in-hand to alert the Rockefeller Foundation when PM Rao wants to test nuclear weapons and Prithvi missiles in November 1995. The two were - V. S. Arunachalam and Naresh Chandra, former ambassador to US. I still remember the sweating Ambassador Naresh Chandra trying to explain on CNN the PM Atal Vajpayee's nuclear weapons tests 1998. (PM Vajpayee didn't confer to anyone before taking the decision.) Link

It looks like Jaswant Singh's spy is Naresh Chandra (after his denial that Arunachalam was the spy). But Naresh Chandra was not in PMO?

Update (July 28, 2006) Indian Express had an interesting interview with PM P.V. Narasimha Rao recorded when he was alive few years ago. PM Rao says he will take the secret of why he didn't test nuclear weapons to his grave. But I wonder if he told his close friend PM Vajpayee as to what happened. And Mr. Vajpayee could avoid the same pitfall as PM Rao when he became the prime minister in 1998.

Update (Aug 12, 2006) I finally read Sekhar Gupta's late July column in Indian Express on the mole issue. He thinks PM Rao may have wanted US to believe he wanted to test and used someone as mole to get the message across. Mr. Gupta thinks both Naresh Chandra and Arunachalam are unlikely moles. Link