R.N. Kao
Former IB officer, founder of R&AW and Cabinet Adviser (India)
Rameshwar Nath Kao, generally referred to as R.N. Kao and 'Ramji' by his close acquaintances, was a career officer in the imperial Indian Police who later served in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) of independent India. He was handpicked by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to establish India's external intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) and serve as its founder and first Secretary.
Kao had mentored and groomed two generations of R&AW officers and is credited with playing a fundamental role in the breakup of erstwhile East Pakistan and absorption of Sikkim into India.
Known Academic History:-
Primary education at Hill Memorial High School, Vadodara (Baroda)
Secondary education at Theosophical High School, Kamacha
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Indian History and Persian at the University of Lucknow (1936)
Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Allahabad (1938)
First year in Law (1939)
Known Professional History:-
Commissioned in the Indian Police (1940)
Under-Training Officer at Police Training College Moradabad, United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh)
Posting to Khiri and various other districts of United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) (1941-47)
Deputation to post-partition IB as Deputy Director (1947)
Security Incharge for Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and visiting foreign dignitaries (1950-58)
Handpicked by IB chief B.N. Mullik to raise Ghana's external intelligence service on the request of Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah; made Officer on Special Duty (1958-59)
Joint Director; head of IB's Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and external intelligence (1963-68)
Founder Director and 1st Secretary (Security) of R&AW (1968-77)
Post-retirement Senior Adviser in Gandhi's second Cabinet, where he constituted the Policy Research Staff (PRS) and also discreetly visited China to normalise bilateral relations at Gandhi's behest (1981-84) [Note: Senior Indian journalist and commentator Nitin A. Gokhale asserts that the PRS was in a sense the forerunner to National Security Council Secretariat which was formed in 1999]
Served under the following four IB chiefs:-
T.G. Sanjeevi Pillai (1947-50)
B.N. Mullik (1950-64)
S.P. Verma (1964-68)
M.M.L. Hooja (1968-71)
Miscellaneous:-
Appointed Special Investigator by Mullik to probe into the crash of Air India aircraft 'Kashmir Princess', off the coast of Indonesia; through coordination with mainland Chinese, British, Indonesian and Hong Kong authorities, Kao was able to confirm the incident as sabotage by Kuomintang agents (1955)
Coordinated with Indian Army to secede Bangladesh from Pakistan (1971)
Oversaw the merger of Sikkim into India (1973-75)
Brainchild of a tripartite maritime intelligence sharing mechanism with its French counterpart SDECE (now DGSE) and Shah of Iran's SAVAK (1975-79)
Dissuaded the government of Prime Minister Morarji Desai through nuclear scientist Dr Homi Sethna from signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (1977)
References
Nitin Gokhale, 'R.N. Kao - Gentleman Spymaster'
B. Raman, 'The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane'