T.V. Rajeswar
Former IB chief (India)
Thangavelu Rajeswar, popularly referred to as T.V. Rajeswar, was a career Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Director of India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) who hailed from Salem in Tamil Nadu. He was talent-spotted by B.N. Mullik, IB's second and long-serving Director.
He has a daughter and a son. The former, Sujatha Singh, is a former career officer in the Indian Foreign Service who rose to become Foreign Secretary of India (2013-15).
Known Academic History:-
Primary education at Sengunthar Mahajana School, Rasipuram, Tamil Nadu
MA in Economics from Presidency College, erstwhile Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu
Known Professional History:-
Commissioned to the IPS (1949)
Initial posting in erstwhile Hyderabad state before allotment to Andhra Pradesh
Superintendent of Police in Nizamabad, Raichur and Guntur districts of erstwhile Hyderabad state
Deputy Commisioner of Police in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Telangana
Assistant Director IB with postings in Sikkim and Bhutan (1962-68)
Deputy Director and later Joint Director in Headquarters (1968-77)
Inaugural Director of Civil Aviation Security/ ex-officio Additional Director General Civil Aviation in the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (1978)
Special Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh in Delhi (1978-80)
Director IB (1980-83)
Lieutenant Governor of Andhra Pradesh, the first IPS officer to be selected for the post (1983-85)
Governor of Sikkim (1985-89)
Governor of West Bengal (1989-90)
Governor of Uttar Pradesh (2004-09)
Served under the following five IB chiefs:-
B.N. Mullik (1950-64)
S.P. Verma (1964-68)
M.M.L. Hooja (1968-71)
Atma Jayaram (1971-75)
S.N. Mathur (1975-80)
Miscelleaneous:-
Used cover of Officer on Special Duty in Sikkim on the state government's request with responsibilities covering border security and trans-border intelligence (1963-65)
Deputed as Security Adviser to Bhutanese King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk during which time he setup and trained the country's police force (1965-67)
Sent by headquarters on a study tour of Naxalbari, West Bengal (1967)
Security Liaison Officer to visiting Russian President Alexei Kosygin (1968)
Accompanied President Zakir Hussain to Nepal (1968)
Accompanied Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Afghanistan (1969)
Security Liaison Officer to visiting US President Richard Nixon (1969)
Accompanied President V.V. Giri to erstwhile Ceylon/ Sri Lanka (1970)
Accompanied Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Mauritius, Russia, France and Egypt (1970)
Accompanied President V.V. Giri on state visits to erstwhile Soviet Union (present day Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Georgia, Russia), Bulgaria and Hungary (1971)
Security Adviser to Bangladeshi President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and accompanied the latter on a medical trip to the UK and return stopover at Switzerland (1972)
Accompanied President V.V. Giri on state visits to Yugoslavia, Cyprus, Romania and Afghanistan with fuel transit stopovers in UAE and Iraq (1972)
Visited the Philippines to gather information on activities of the Ananda Marga cult of India's core overseas base (1975)
Moved out of IB and sent on a 6-month leave by Home Minister Charan Singh due to bureaucratic in-fighting pitted by a Customs and also an Income Tax Department officer (1977-78)
As DIB, prominent activities include: (1) Issuing a note in favour of falsely-accused in the 'Samba Spy Case' based on thorough counter-espionage investigations that reported contrary to assertions made by Indian Army's Military Intelligence Directorate (1980), (2) visiting the UK to liaise with MI5 counterpart Sir Howard Smith and MI6 counterpart Sir Arthur Franks (October 1980), (3) participating in the Commonwealth Conference of Intelligence Chiefs in Australia (November 1980), (4) establishing IB's new state-of-the-art training school at Sardar Patel Marg (January 1981), (5) rapport-building with CIA Director William J. Casey and facilitating technical training on enhanced VIP car armoury and (6) successul security management of Non-Aligned Summit in New Delhi (March 1983)
References
T.V. Rajeswar, 'India: The Crucial Years', published by HarperCollins Publishers India in 2016
Websites of the Governor's Office in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh