Indira Gandhi Overdid the ‘Foreign Hand’ but Some of Her Fears About the CIA were real

There was a time when India was called the ‘Berlin of the East’, because it was the only place where spies from different countries could meet each other easily, Paul McGarr, academic and author, who teaches at King’s College, London, tells Sidharth Bhatia in an interview.
Dr McGarr’s new book, Spying in South Asia-Britain, the United States and India’s Secret Cold War takes a deep look at how India was a theatre of intense spying from even before independence and more so in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and after, when the Cold War between the western and communist bloc was on. That’s when the west and the Soviet Union saw India as a valuable prize.
India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was wary of all that spying activity and Mrs Indira Gandhi constantly invoked the ‘foreign hand’ as trying to destabilise India. McGarr tells the story of two nuclear devices planted in the Himalayas by the Indians and the CIA to spy on China and how the story was handled when the it became public in 1978.
McGarr says Indira Gandhi did sometimes exaggerate the Foreign Hand but “her fears that the CIA was trying to overthrow socialist governments around the world was genuine.” In 1973 Salvatore Allende was ousted in a military coup by Augusto Pinochet with the help of the CIA and in 1975 Mujib ur Rahman was assassinated in Bangladesh and that confirmed her worst fears.
But, writes McGarr, even while politicians were attacking foreign intelligence agencies, spies from the west and India were talking to each other and even cooperating.
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[@ArK-pu6hn]

Indira defined India, and no one could change it in the near future

[@Trust-z9v]

Yes she said all Muslims should leave India

[@SamiUlla-e4h]

No one can match the great Iron Lady....a perfect p.m

[@ShadyAJ]

The difference in archives & disclosures between the oldest and the largest democracy, is perhaps similar to the difference in their population.

[@Realndeep99]

Please release this book in paperback so that price can come down, it’s expensive.

[@rajkothari7999]

A mouth piece of the Colonial BBC

[@georgesmith-ne4zp]

It's been 13 minutes and he's only asking about archives!

[@dchakraborty4901]

The Wire itself knows what foreign agenda and propaganda means

[@Shaggy-839two]

Conpared to modi and the corrupt BJP the ghandis had india's best interest at heart.