A new history of the KGB alleges that the Soviets had deeply infiltrated Indira Gandhi’s government in the 1970s. Based on the KGB’s own documents, the book argues that:

Russia’s feared KGB spy service penetrated all levels of the Indian government under Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and became a major cash backer of her Congress (R) party.

The KGB operation in India during that period was its largest in the world outside the Soviet bloc and it even had to create a new department to handle it… suitcases of money were regularly taken into Gandhi’s house to fund the Congress party, and in the 1977 poll which she lost, nine party candidates were KGB agents.[Link]

“It seemed like the whole country was for sale” — Former KGB general Oleg KaluginThe general argument here is nothing new, but these details had not been heard before and they’re causing quite a kerfuffle in India.

There is the claim, for example, that the KGB convinced Indira Gandhi to declare a state of emergency in 1975.

The book also points out that the CIA had tried to infiltrate the Indian government as well:

The inquiry “uncovered two occasions” during Jawaharlal Nehru’s prime ministry when “the CIA had secretly provided funds to help the Communists’ opponents in state elections, once in Kerala and once in West Bengal.” …  ”Both times the money was given to the Congress Party which had asked for it. Once it was given to Mrs Gandhi herself, who was then a party official. [Link]

However, the KGB proved more successful because it was better at exploiting the widespread corruption under Indira Gandhi. Their operation in India was :

“one of the largest outside the Soviet bloc” and was seen as a “model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government”. [Link]

The KGB remained heavily involved with the Indian government through Rajiv Gandhi’s administration, and their relationship ended only in 1989 with the end of the Cold War.

Politicians in India have been scrambling to respond to the book:

The Congress party, which currently heads India’s federal coalition government, rejected the allegations. “It’s a completely baseless story intended only for sensationalism,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said in New Delhi, adding that the book was not based on official archives.

But the main opposition group, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded an investigation. “The perception of Congress-KGB links has always been there. The book only makes it stronger. We want a federal probe into this,” BJP party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. [Link]

Communists in West Bengal, one of the world’s last surviving bastions of the Left, Monday laughed away the contents of a new book that said some of their key leaders in India were recruits and beneficiaries of the erstwhile Soviet secret service, KGB.

”It is a smear campaign against the Communists, an effort to belittle us and sounds totally fabricated,” West Bengal Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary Manjukumar Mazumdar told IANS on Monday. [Link]

Although there is a possibility of a smear, the book is based upon the best records available concerning the KGB. (This is a book about the KGB, India plays only a small role in it).

The Mitrokhin archive contains more than 200,000 documents smuggled out of the former Soviet Union by a dissident KGB archivist who was in charge of moving dossiers on foreign intelligence operatives from central Moscow to Yasenevo on the outskirts of the city.

During the move, which took more than 10 years, Vasili Mitrokhin had unparalleled access to the “crown jewels”: names and identities of KGB officers, their agents, informants and operations.

For more than 10 years he copied the documents on to pieces of paper that he smuggled past security guards in his underwear and shoes. He hid them in trunks around his house and canisters at the bottom of his garden.

In 1992, after revealing the extent of his knowledge to officials at the British embassy in Latvia, he was settled in Britain with a new identity and MI6 launched a sensitive operation to retrieve the documentation from Mitrokhin’s home. [Link]

Henry Kissinger has issued a clarification of his earlier remarks, explaining that he never said Indira Gandhi was a bitch. Instead, he now claims, he said “Indira Gandhi is Russia’s bitch.” However, he still has no regrets about US support for Pakistan while it was killing 3 million Bangladeshis.