Ashok Chaturvedi - The V.K. Singh Book Dispute

The V.K. Singh Book Dispute

Controversy and media speculation about his future has also continued to follow Chaturvedi's career with his failed attempts to ban the publication and sale of the book, India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing R&AW, written by Major General V.K. Singh, formerly a colleague and Joint Secretary in R&AW. In the book, V.K. Singh made a number of claims about R&AW including petulant conduct from a senior officer within the organization who went on unauthorised leave for eight months after being overlooked for promotion and who was tagged with malfeasance and ineptitude. The book was published and distributed both in India and abroad in June 2007 and the matter had largely been forgotten.

However, Chaturvedi curiously resurrected the issue months later when V.K. Singh's home was raided on 21 September 2007 by officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A case was registered against V.K. Singh under the Official Secrets Act of India (OSA). The following day the offices of the publishers of the book, Manas Publications, were also raided.

Addressing a media conference where former intelligence officials were present to support him, V.K. Singh spectacularly revealed that the R&AW officer who went on an eight-month leave of absence without permission was in fact Ashok Chaturvedi.

Singh said the R&AW chief's absence from work was "an act of gross indiscipline…can he (Chaturvedi) bring discipline to the organization if he does not attend office for eight months?"

The investigative magazine, Outlook, stated that Chaturvedi appeared to have a personal vendetta against V.K. Singh. They also claimed that sources from the CBI had confirmed to them that the R&AW officer, mentioned in VK Singh's book, who went on unofficial leave for eight months was indeed Chaturvedi.

The raid on V.K. Singh's house had also been embarrassing for Chaturvedi as initially the wrong address, belonging to another retired R&AW official, was raided in East Delhi instead of the author's house in Gurgaon, . It took the officials another three hours before they finally reached the correct residence. Ironically, the whole controversy has embarrassed the Indian government and revived the sales of Singh's book. In fact, the publishers ordered another print run of 3,000 copies because of the high demand. The whole incident has also created a new debate over the freedom of expression in India and the level of public accountability of the countries' intelligence agencies. Legal experts also believe it would be a futile attempt to charge V.K. Singh under the Official Secrets Act, particularly as other former intelligence officials have released books that have been deemed to be more damaging in terms of disclosing R&AW's secrets, but no action was ever taken against them.

Chaturvedi had sanctioned publication of a book written by Shankaran Nair, a former head of R&AW, in which the Gandhi family, particularly former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, is reported to have been behind a number of controversial deals involving bribery. It has been questioned as to why Chaturvedi tried to gag V.K. Singh yet allowed Nair's book to be published without any scrutiny. This has brought Chaturvedi into a direct confrontation with the Nehru-Gandhi Family.

After the V.K. Singh book dispute, Chaturvedi issued a directive wanting all R&AW's current employees to sign a declaration that they would not write about their careers after they leave the agency. Opinion, however, is divided on the issue as many say it's unfair to censor such voices. The declaration wants to bar officers from writing about the agency even after the two-year cooling off period post-retirement. The new ruling would mean that officers would have to take permission to write and even then it cannot be published without prior clearance from the agency. The declaration says for any violation the officer will be held liable for action, such as no pension, to charges under the Official Secrets Act.