The Moles are digging into Indian defense establishments

The Prelude

Ever since India turned into a republic in the early 1950s it felt the need for a robust policy that could ensure its sovereignty and protect it from foreign aggression. Somehow the leaders of those times had some other priorities which is understandable considering the fact that India needed to break the shackles of poverty arising out of a prolong British rule and painful partition of the nation. India could not afford a full scale investment on defense and self-protection. Taking advantage of India’s vulnerabilities Pakistan launched a series of mischievous attacks and managed to annex a large part of Jammu and Kashmir officially known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). They never retreated from their gained ground and that resulted in a severe security concern and loss for India. That was the first time India came terms to a full scale offensive. Over the years Pakistan managed to politically stimulate the population of Indian Kashmir towards achieving a free state of their own but a stiff resistance from the Indian administration has let down all those efforts every time.

India’s second experience was even bitter when China invaded a large part of India and refused to vacate another substantial piece of land in Jammu and Kashmir called Akshai Chin. By the end of 1960s India strongly realized that its diplomacy with neighboring countries cannot prevent it from their dangerous intentions and it started to modernize itself to prevent further incidents. 

India’s Defense Modernization Drives

India’s modernization drive was primarily led by state owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). Apart from owning modern hardware India needed strong surveillance and internal security mechanism where manual recce and round the clock monitoring was mandated. That’s when Intelligence Bureau (IB) and R&AW also played a vital part. In modern day warfare war cannot be won only through hardware but also through intelligence gathering.

In Pic: Pakistan Army surrender to India in 1971. Picture Courtesy: orfonline.org

By 1970s India’s Intelligence agencies chalked out a detailed plan to teach Pakistan a befitting lesson by helping Bangladeshi rebels led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fight for a separate Bengali Speaking state and they succeeded in making Pakistan lose its Eastern territory. That was the first major plot that India scripted and played it to perfection. Over the years many covert operation happened within the subcontinent and most of them were chosen to remain as classified.

The Emergence of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)

Unlike India Pakistan was predominantly never under a democratic fabric with the Army at the helm of country’s decision making. History shows how many coups have taken place in Pakistan since Independence. There has always been a toxic combination of Islamic fanatics with Army with both sharing a common hatred towards the existence of the Indian Union. Pakistan was never happy with the assimilation of many kingdoms into India. It was Sardar Patel who went all guns blazing through his clever negotiation, diplomacy, soft power and military operations and brought together the Modern Indian Republic. The ISI was raised as an intelligence unit of Pakistan Army initially which showed impeccable records in stirring up things in India. Pakistan invested some of their best minds and money towards the growth of ISI. The Kashmir Freedom Movement, the Khalistan movement, the North Eastern Insurgencies, The Mumbai Attacks are some instances of their notorious designs.  It is said that ISI has more penetration in India than vice versa. The reason for their hyper activism in India is not necessarily a weakness of India as the country was forced into a polarized era during US-Soviet cold war with India ending at the Soviet side thereby facing the wrath of the mighty U.S. and its premier intelligence agency CIA. The CIA worked in close association with ISI for long against India and helped it in securing tactical, military and other high value information.

The Social Media Factor
 
The emergence of various social media sites and their popularity among masses is making things worse for the security agencies. ISI has mastered the art of social engineering attacks on Indian army personnel and other defense organizations. From 2016 more than a dozen army jawans has been found involved in sharing sensitive data with ISI handlers. The handlers sitting on the other side of the border pose themselves as Indian women or employers and allure these jawans with hefty rewards. There are also cases of honey trapping when jawans are picked based on their profile shared on social media.

 Incidents Reported

As of 2017 most of the reported incidents mainly involved jawans who were found sharing maps, strategic army movements, brigade strength, weapon information and phone numbers of peers. But things started to move to an altogether different level when India faced an alarming case of a scientist caught selling sensitive information related to Brahmos Supersonic Cruise Missile system where he was a project member.

 Incidents of Sabotages

Navy: There has been 62 mishaps from 2007 to 2017 and not all of them are mechanical. A lot of them appeared suspicious and sailors were found to ignore normal work protocols. 177 officers were found to be guilty as per the report tabled in Lok Sabha. There was an explosion on board INS Sindhurakshak in August 2013 where 18 crewmen lost their lives while in another incident in 2015 INS Sindhughosh collided with a trawler off Mumbai coast. The security of India’s only nuclear missile launching capable submarine was also compromised when water entered the engine compartment of the vessel running on uranium enriched nuclear reactor during the Dokhlam stand-off between India and China. The latest in the list is the theft of critical control systems and hard drives from INS Vikrant – India’s only indigenous aircraft carrier. Nobody is sure how amidst all the security cameras and surveillance system this theft was organized. Though a high level inquiry has been ordered but the nature of the crime points towards an insider help.

In Pic: INS Arihant. Picture Courtesy: The Hindu

Airforce: In a recent incident of theft an IAF team overseeing the production of Indian Rafale in a Dassault Factory reported the loss of classified sensitive documents and hard-drives from their Paris residence raising concerns about the level of seriousness and professionalism of the IAF team. Since Rafale is yet to be inducted for operation as of 2019 a breach of sensitive data considering the importance of the aircraft in the subcontinent’s power balance is highly significant.

Miscellaneous: A recent report in Asiatimes.com suggest that India has lost top scientists working in critical projects concerning space, defense research or nuclear program in years. It all started with the sudden demise of the father of India’s nuclear program – Dr. Homi J Bhaba whose aircraft crashed under mysterious circumstance just within 13 days of another mysterious death of our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. According to the report 2 Chief Engineers of INS Arihant project were thrown dead on railway tracks. A lot of Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) scientists were murdered including prominent women scientist Dr. Uma Rao. BARC reported around 680 deaths during the last 15 years, the Heavy Water Plant at Baroda, Kota and Tuticorin reported 26, 30 and 27 deaths respectively. Even Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) also lost 684 people in the last 15 years. Though not all deaths are murders but there are a large number of unsolved cases which needs to be investigated. Government needs to come clean on the numbers and cause of deaths as only a handful gets reported citing mission secrecy.

 In Pic: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Picture Courtsey: Indiatoday.com

The Conclusion

As an aspiring global power Indian defense forces need to be more accountable in their conduct and professional in their approach as the loss in any form not only endangers nation’s security but also jeopardizes strike back capability as the enemies always stay a step ahead in a number of situations. The organizations need to work together in harmony and ensure that we use our best resources in space, land or ocean to safeguard our resources and lives. Today’s war is not only fought through guns but also through Cyber space. India needs to understand the malicious intentions of our adversaries and design more cyber armies and get ready for a Hybrid war. We also need a strong ground network of sources in foreign soil and a strong team of informers within every strategic locations so that a seamless flow of data is available before any action. A country is as strong as its defense and so we cannot ignore spending on defense infrastructure in order to complement our thriving economy. We should impart proper training to personnel in defense regarding their Social Media browsing behavior and honor their job secrecy. Critical mission members should also be equipped with modern day anti-hacking technology on their personal devices as well. India should also build their own IT infrastructure using Indigenous software. After all safety is a collective approach and any breach in any layer may defeat the entire purpose.

*The Author is a Software Developer by profession and a passionate watcher of Indian Defense Space. He also takes deep interest involving foreign affairs, economy and politics.