‘I Have Written It As It Happened... Let The Readers Decide’

A controversial spymaster blamed for the biggest bungle in RAW’s history—the defection of Rabinder Singh to the US—has written a novel to set the record straight. Amar Bhushan’s Escape to Nowhere is the first work of fiction to be penned by an Indian intelligence officer. The gripping, thinly disguised novel recreates Singh’s flight from Delhi to Washington via Kathmandu foiling a massive Bhushan-led RAW counter-intelligence operation to nab the CIA mole. S.N.M. Abdi spoke to Bhushan ahead of his book’s launch.

Is former MI6 boss Stella Remington who has authored two novels your inspiration?

Not at all. After I retired in 2005, there was endless speculation about the Rabinder Singh episode of 2004 and my role in it. The protagonist-cum-suspect in my novel is of course Ravi Mohan. So let’s call it my version of Ravi’s escape.

It reads like a very realistic and credible account, lifting the veil off many RAW practices. The main characters are easily recognisable and the snooping gadgetry is fascinating.

I have written it as it happened. But I have deliberately deleted a lot of details—roughly one-third of the original draft—which would have compromised national security and attracted the provisions of Official Secrets Act.

How much is fact, how much fiction?

Let the readers identify the pieces that they believe to be true or imaginary and put them together to reach their own conclusion about the fact:fiction ratio.

V.K. Singh, a former intelligence officer and your colleague, in his book Secrets of RAW holds you squarely responsible for Rabinder’s successful defection. He portrayed you as an over-ambitious spook who didn’t do his job properly.

In the three years V.K. Singh and I were together in RAW, I spent three hours with him. Basically, he is a peddler of gossip. He was an officer in the telecommunication division. As we operate on a need-to-know basis, his account of the goings-on in the whole organisation is questionable.

Why do you think America spies on India so relentlessly?

It’s the charter of every intelligence organisation to infiltrate and subvert other intelligence agencies. The CIA is not alone; there is the ISI too.

But the CIA is forever poaching from RAW, the IB and the National Security Council Secretariat. From Unnikrishnan in Madras in the 1980s to Rabinder, Ratan Sehgal, S.S. Paul, Mukesh Saini, Ujjal Dasgupta.... the list is seemingly endless.

Every spy agency has an agenda and priorities. What more can I say?

Do you regret being a spy?

I am proud of my services to the nation. But I can’t talk about the operations I undertook or even my foreign postings. A spy’s family and friends are in the dark about his activities. Ninety five per cent of the office doesn’t know what he is doing. He is not supposed to share his joy, sorrow and exasperation even with his wife. The work culture can be really suffocating. Many spies become loners.

But with your book you’ll be in the limelight. Doesn’t it unnerve you?

You are the first journalist I’ve spoken to in my life. No press photographer has shot my pictures before. I will have to deal with the new situation.

You have now emerged from the shadows. How long did it take to write the novel?

I wrote the first draft for three-and-a-half years and vetted it for another 18 months. I’m an extremely careful and cautious individual by nature.