Rameshwar Nath Kao is an Indian spy and one of India’s most important intelligence officers. He is the best-known member of India’s external intelligence agency R&AW, and served as its first head. He served as Secretary (Research), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India. He also served as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s personal security chief and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s security adviser. He died of age-related illnesses on January 20, 2002.
Wiki/Biography
Rameshwar Nath Rao was born on Friday 10 May 1918 in Varanasi, British India (age 83; time of death). His zodiac sign is Taurus. He received his BA in Arts from Lucknow University and his MA in English Literature from Allahabad University. His family used to live in Srinagar, but when Gao was young, he came to Varanasi. His father died at an early age and he was taken care of by his uncle Pandit Trilokinath Kao. At Allahabad University, he passed law, but in between, he passed the civil services examination and joined the Indian Imperial Police.
appearance
Hair color: gray
Eye color: black
family
Parents and siblings
Gao’s father, Dwarika Nath, was the deputy collector of Lucknow. His mother’s name is Khemwati Kaul. His brother’s name is Shyam Sunder Nath.
wife and children
Gao married Malini Kao in 1941. His daughter’s name is Achala Kaul.
caste
Gao is a Kashmiri Hindu Pandit.
Profession
Gao began his career in 1940 when he joined the Imperial Indian Police. He was appointed as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kanpur. Later, he was posted to Khiri headquarters in Lakhimpur Khiri district of Uttar Pradesh and many other places in Uttar Pradesh. The day before Partition, he was assigned the security of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In the 1950s, he helped establish an intelligence and security organization in Ghana. In 1950, he provided security to Queen Elizabeth II when she visited India. While attending a reception, he noticed someone throwing a bouquet of flowers at the Queen, which he thought was a bomb. In April 1655, a Kashmir Prince aircraft owned by Air India carrying representatives of the Bandung Conference crashed, and Kao Kun participated in the investigation. He said in the report that 16 deputies died in the accident and three survived. He also said that the air crash was planned by the Chinese Kuomintang to assassinate Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, but fortunately, he was not on the plane. Later, Gao Kun received a letter of recommendation from Zhou Enlai. Jawaharlal Nehru was so impressed by his personal security chief Gao that he was appointed the first director of the Orissa Chapati Center for Aeronautical Research. In 1968, due to the impact of the Sino-Indian War in 1962 and the Operation Gibraltar in 1965, the army needed an intelligence agency, so Prime Minister Indira Gandhi directed the Intelligence Bureau to establish a Research and Analysis Department, which would serve as India’s main external intelligence agency. She appointed Gao as head of the organization. He became the first Hindu officer to join the Intelligence Bureau. Subsequently, he was also appointed as Additional Secretary and Secretary (Research), Cabinet Secretariat. He spent ten years with IB and is credited with leading the organization to new heights. Many government officials applauded Indira Gandhi’s decision to appoint Kao as the head of the department. In the 1960s, Indira Gandhi’s trust in Kao Kun continued to increase, and the two met frequently to discuss various issues. In an interview, one of Kao’s colleagues discussed Kao’s relationship with Indira Gandhi and said:
Intelligence is the only government matter that relies on the spoken word. Sometimes you can understand gestures and body language. Kao Kun and Mrs. Gandhi had a harmonious relationship. “
Rameshwar Nath Kao with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
In 1975, he played an important role in the merger of Sikkim in India. He suggested that the government provide arms to Tamil guerrillas in the 1980s. He was actively involved in Sri Lankan affairs. Kao Kun made a huge contribution to the formation of Bangladesh. He along with his team members Shankaran Nair (former R&AW Director) and Girish Chandra Saxena (former R&AW Director, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir), along with a team of Kashmiri Advisors DP Dhar, PN Haksar and TN Kaul provided training to the Mukti Bahini Force in Bangladesh country. The Indian Air Force was also allowed to bomb the rooms where the East Pakistan cabinet met. He has also long maintained strong ties with Bangladesh. In 1975, he traveled to Dhaka to meet Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and warned him of plans to assassinate him. He even revealed the name of the alleged military plotter, but Rahman did not listen to him. Unfortunately, a week later, he was killed. In 1977, after the People’s Party came to power, Gao Kun resigned from his post. The BJP leader has questioned his role in the Emergency issued by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After Indira came to power in 1980, he joined the organization again. He discussed his resignation in an interview, saying:
Prime Minister Morarji Desai has a disdain for RAW, which he considers to be just another police force, and there is no point in working for an intelligence agency if the Prime Minister has no confidence in the industry. “
In 1980, he brought terrorism in India into the spotlight by forming the National Security Guard (NSG) during the insurgency in Punjab. After his retirement in 1989, he interacted with various political leaders on the issues faced by Kashmiri Pandits.
die
Gao Gao passed away in New Delhi on January 20, 2002 due to senile diseases.
Facts/Trivia
- His friends and colleagues knew him as Ramji.
- Kao is the founder of the Aeronautical Research Center (ARC) and the Joint Intelligence Committee.
- Before joining the Intelligence Office, he worked for a tobacco company.
- Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi appreciated Kao Kun’s integrity, intellectuality, shyness and humility.
- He was selected as one of the “Five Great Intelligence Leaders of the 1970s” by Count Alexandre de Malanche, head of France’s foreign intelligence agency. The count said of him:
What a mesmerizing combination of physical and spiritual elegance! What an achievement! What a friendship! And yet, shy about talking about himself, his achievements, and his friends. “
- The boys who trained under him were called “Kaoboys”. KN Daruwala, former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said of Gao in an interview,
His connections around the world, especially in Asia—Afghanistan, Iran, China, you name it—are another story. He was just a phone call away from moving things. He was a team leader who overcame the notorious inter-departmental and inter-service rivalries that are common in India. “
- After his death, in memory of him, the R&AW held the annual RN Kao Memorial Lecture. In 2006, the first lecture was delivered by Shashi Tharoor on the fifth death anniversary of Gao and the second lecture was delivered by Kumar Mangalam Birla.
- Kao Kun lived a very private life. He was photographed in public only twice in his life. He once lived in his bungalow in New Delhi, which was heavily guarded and rarely granted interviews.
- According to his colleagues, whenever he had free time, he would receive couplets in Urdu fluently.
- He often keeps horse sculptures at home and likes sculptures very much.
- Colleagues revealed in interviews that he once kept a small bronze statue of a cowboy in his desk that was presented to him by George H.W. Bush when he visited CIA headquarters in Washington.
- In 2020, film director Karan Johar announced on Twitter that he would direct a film based on the book “RN Kao: Gentleman Spy Master” written by Nitin Gokhale. He said in a Twitter post,
The film is adapted from the book “RN Kao: Gentleman Spymaster” written by Nitin Gokhale and tells the story of Kao’s creation of India’s external intelligence agency R&AW and how he became a success story in the international espionage world.
- Interestingly, he recorded the events of his life in seven audio files, but wanted them to be released publicly after his death. In the library, only four of the seven archives are available to scholars. The 1971 war, the merger of Sikkim with India and the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi are expected to kick off in 2027.
- In 2020, another filmmaker, Firoz Nadiadwala, posted on social media that he would make a web series about Gao’s life. He said in the post that he conducted some of the research on his life in 2015. In a social media post, he wrote:
We have been working on this project for five years. This is a story worth sharing and understanding, so we first made it into a web series and are currently planning 20 episodes. We are in talks with two major streaming platforms about this. “
- Many of his colleagues say his network is very strong. His colleagues added that once he received a code from Pakistan that Pakistan would attack India, he put the Indian Air Force on high alert but there was no unknown activity for two days. The troops requested that they not be able to maintain high alert for such a long time, but he asked them to maintain alert for another day. On December 3, the Indian army was attacked.
- In 2022, filmmaker Hansal Mehta announced in an interview that he would release a series based on RK Yadav’s book Mission R&AW on the SonyLiv app. Hansal talked about this in an interview, saying:
As a storyteller, I have always been committed to telling vivid stories and exploring ordinary people and their extraordinary behaviors. These men cemented our political and military history. Rameshwar Nath Kao is considered a genius but not much is known about him. I’m excited to explore his story with the talented Karan Vyas and SonyLIV, who have been great to work with. I look forward to starting this project soon. “
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education