Don't dickride so hard that the obvious reality is obscured. No way in hell is your shitty Rafale even comparable to an actual 5th gen F-35. Finland's acquisition of F-35 silenced all the Rafale fanboys anyway.
Raman, whose revelations about the episode feature in his new book The Kaoboys of R&AW, said "the whole world was shocked by the ease with which two French intelligence officers, assisted by their Polish counterparts, had penetrated the PMO and removed tonnes and tonnes of documents. It was alleged that they were so sure that nothing would happen to them that they used to go to the PMO on Sundays and other holidays, go through all the files and papers, take out what was of interest to them and took out photocopies using the photocopying machine of the PMO and the photocopying papers of the PMO. It was a scandal of unbelievable proportions."
In an article which is to appear shortly on the website of strategic think-tank South Asia Analysis Group, he said the scandal assumed such proportions that Rajiv Gandhi had to make a statement in Parliament and his and his mother's Principal Secretary, P C Alexander, had to resign.
The investigations revealed that the French and other collaborating intelligence agencies "operated through Yogesh T Maneklal, then Managing Director of Maneklal Industries Limited of Mumbai, who had extensive contacts at the lower levels of the PMO, the President's Office and other ministries and persuaded many government servants to work for the French intelligence".
Besides Maneklal, who was given a 14-year prison term, the former RAW officer named 12 government officers who were sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years by the court of Additional Sessions Judge R K Gauba.
Maintaining that all these details were available in parliamentary and court records, Raman said "One is surprised and disturbed that within 25 years of this disgraceful betrayal, most of our national security managers and so-called strategic analysts have forgotten about it. When I draw attention to this, some in the media accuse me of disseminating claims without corroboration, others ridicule me by comparing me with (former external affairs minister) Jaswant Singh, and some others attribute motives to me. This is why we face national security disasters again and again and again. A nation, which has no memory for the past, is bound to repeat its mistakes in the future," Raman, who retired in 1994 as additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, said in the article.
Observing that there was unusual "excitement or skepticism" on the issue in some TV channels and a section of the media, Raman said: "We are a nation with no memory. That is why national security lapses keep overtaking us at regular intervals and we keep drifting from one disaster to another."
India News: B Raman, a former intelligence officer, has said that the French intelligence penetrated the Prime Minister's Office when Indira Gandhi was in office.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
I actually advocate for downgrading of relations with France. Have some decency, how can a post-colonial Indian State have good relations with a neo-colonial France? If you have US locked in a strategic partnership, why even bother with such a middle power(FR)? France was always the go-to because India-US relations were bad, now that India-US relations are good, whats the utility of France?
I bet 5 years from India will anyway procure F-35, since it would be the only navy in QUAD not having F-35. All other common equipment will work in tandem like P-8s, Sea Guardians, MH-60 but Rafales will stick out like a sore thumb. The whole point of QUAD was inter-operability and joint ops with their navies.
reality, we need to whole-heartedly embrace US like China did once. Sentimentality has no place here.
