Indira Gandhi is greeted by her opponent Morarji Desai just after her election as Prime Minister of India, 19 January 1966.
Table of Contents
Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai was the reason behind Pakistan achieving Nuclear Power so easily. This one mistake by him let Pakistan become one of the nine nations to possess Nuclear Weapons. What was this mistake? Please read the article to find out the full information on How Morarji Desai is involved in Pakistan becoming a nuclear power.
After Independence, India fought 2 wars in 1962 & 1965 with China & Pakistan respectively. One thing that India realized after these two wars was that we needed an agency just like CIA or MOSSAD that can provide crucial and secret information of other countries (Specifically Pakistan & China).
RAW – Research & Analysis Wing Of India
The then prime minister of India, Smt Indira Gandhi considered this important and as a result, an independent Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) was founded and it was aligned under direct reporting to the prime minister of India. RAW was founded in 1968 & R.N Kao was its first director. R.N Kao is well known of his silent and calm nature. He knew how to extract secret information out.
The main task assigned to RAW was to keep an eye on the activities of Pakistan and China. Slowly and gradually, RAW managed to create a strong network both in China and Pakistan.
India Became Nuclear Power
Later in 1974, India Successfully conducted nuclear test in Pokharan. This nuclear test was carried out under the guidance of RAW. RAW successfully maintained the secrecy of the mission and hence Pokharan test was a success. Pakistan panicked with India becoming nuclear powered nation and started working more towards arms and ammunition.
PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the test site in Pokhran with DRDO chief A P J Abdul Kalam (left), and AEC Chairman and DAE Secretary R Chidambaram
Pakistan was already working on nuclear technology in collaboration with China and France. But this was just for the technological development and not for the development of nuclear weapons.
India already knew this was going to happen and that’s why RAW was founded. RAW agents in Pakistan got rumors of Pakistan developing a nuclear base in Kahuta (A place near Rawalpindi). Not to forget that all this information was just a rumor and not a confirmed information. India wanted more details on this project of Pakistan. Hence, RAW Chief Mr. R.N Kao started gathering information on this.
Who Made Nuclear Bombs For Pakistan?
Dr A.Q Khan was the Pakistani nuclear scientist and is also known as the father of Nuclear program in Pakistan. He was working on the nuclear project and was visiting Pyongyang in North Korea very frequently. His visits in North Korea attracted the focus of other countries. Soon, everyone realized that Pakistan is up to something related to Nuclear technology and North Korea is also involved in it.
France, who was working with Pakistan on nuclear technology parted itself away. But this did not affect Pakistan and it continued its work on nuclear technology. On the other hand, RAW was focused on gathering more information on this.
Emergency In India In 1975
Meanwhile in India, a lot was happening in political system. Smt Indira Gandhi lost elections after emergency. New government was formed and Morarji Desai became new prime minister of India. Morarji Desai was a great follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology. As he became the prime minister, RAW was aligned under him. When he got to know about all the functions of RAW, he chose not to be involved in all such activities. Another reason was that he used to despise RAW as it was founded by Indira Gandhi. He even reduced RAW’s budget by 30-40%. RAW chief R.N Kao was not happy with this turn and chose to resign.
By this time, India already had a strong network of RAW agents in Pakistan who were working very smartly to extract a confirmed information of Pakistan’s nuclear project. Israel was also against the Pakistan’s nuclear work and hence Israel’s MOSSAD starting working with RAW on this mission. Even after having a strong network of agents, RAW was not able to infiltrate the Pakistan’s Khan Research Laboratory where this nuclear project was in progress.
Achievement Of RAW Agents In Pakistan
After some time, RAW agents in Pakistan targeted a salon outside Khan Research Laboratory. They monitored the salon’s customers. Soon, the agents realized that most of the scientists from Khan Research Laboratory visits salon and are the regular customers of the salon. Wasting no time, agents starting collecting hair samples of the scientists without getting noticed by anyone, even by the barber of the salon.
Once the agents had enough hair samples, they sent the hair samples to India. In India, the hair samples were tested and nuclear radiation was confirmed in the samples. This confirmed the information of Pakistan developing nuclear weapons in Khan Research Laboratory. MOSSAD which was working with RAW, wanted to bomb the laboratory. They created a proper plan to bomb the laboratory. They wanted an air base near Pakistan from where Israel’s fighter jets can be refueled for the operation. MOSSAD & RAW were mutually planning to use India’s Gujrat air base for the operation.
Also Read: National War Memorial Of India
Meanwhile, India had one more achievement in the mission. One of Pakistan’s nuclear scientist compromised with RAW agent and was ready to deliver the blueprint of the Laboratory in USD 10,000. This information was cascaded to RAW headquarters in India. RAW chief met PM Morarji Desai and explained the situation to him. The chief wanted the funds to be arranged but Morarji Desai refused. He believed that it is Pakistan’s internal matter and India should not be involved in this. Hence, this achievement went nowhere.
Biggest Mistake Of Morarji Desai
Back in Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq staged a coup. He relieved prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of power and became 6th president of Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq was a very religious person and wanted to have good relation with all the world leaders. He used to talk with many world leaders including Morarji Desai.
One day, General Zia-ul-Haq made a phone call to Morarji Desai for a casual talk. In between the conversation, Morarji Desai spoke about the Kahuta nuclear project. He explained Zia-ul-Haq that we are aware of the nuclear project you are working upon in Khan Research Laboratory in Kahuta. General Zia-ul-Haq was shocked as he was not sure how India knew about this secret project. Morarji Desai also informed General Zia-ul-Haq about the RAW’s network in Pakistan.
General Zia-ul-Haq wasted no time and started a search operation of finding all the possible RAW agents who were active in Pakistan. He successfully managed to identify most of the RAW agents and had them killed. This was the biggest set back to India as we lost a network that took years to build in Pakistan. As a result, RAW & MOSSAD failed the mission.
This One mistake by Morarji Desai led Pakistan achieve nuclear power. On 28th May 1998, Pakistan carried out operation Chagai-I and successfully tested nuclear power it was working on and thus became one of the 9 states to possess nuclear weapons.
Kaoboys Of RAW By B. Raman
B. Raman, the former head of the Counter-Terrorism Division of R&AW and noted security analyst revealed in his book Kaoboys of R&AW that Morarji Desai indiscreetly told Pakistan’s General Zia ul-Haq that his government was well aware of Pakistan’s nuclear development.
Conclusion
Though this was not the intention of Morarji Desai but it costed lives of so many RAW agents in Pakistan and also helped Pakistan becoming nuclear power without any interference.
Got Queries? Ask with #MorarjiDesai
