One of the most successful operatives of the Research and Analysis Wing(R&AW), India's external intelligence agency, was a Tamil police officer,who rose from the ranks. Mr B.N. Mallick, the legendary head of the IntelligenceBureau (IB) for nearly 15 years, took him into the IB because of his reputationas a palmist and reader of horoscopes. He was very successful in the IB becausemany Indian politicians used to go to him for showing their palm or horoscopeand consulting him on their future.
When the R&AW was formed on September 21,1968, through the bifurcation ofthe IB, Mr R.N. Kao, its founding father, took him into the R&AW and postedhim in quick succession to a number of South and South-East Asian countries. Hewas a roaring success. Not only the local political leaders, but also manysenior local army officers used to seek his advice on their future. He used toread their hands, prepare horoscopes for them, give them predictions, suggestways of placating Saturn, which is supposed to bring bad luck, and inreturn collect information and documents. He proved that a horoscope trap is amore enduring way of collecting intelligence than a honey trap. He is no more.It is a pity he did not record his memoirs as the spy who read horoscopes.
There was one small station in South-East Asia where only the US and Indiahad consulates in the late 1960s. The Indian Consulate was headed by thishoroscope-reading officer and the US Consulate by an officer from the CentralIntelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA officer, who had seen how popular was theR&AW officer because of his ability to read palms and horoscopes, requestedhim to teach him the art. The officer asked Mr Kao for orders as to whether heshould teach him.
I was his controlling officer in the headquarters. I put up the message fromhim to Mr Kao with the recommendation that the officer should agree, but teachthe CIA officer all the wrong things so that his predictions went wrong. Mr Kaodid not agree and asked me to tell our officer that he should not teach him.
One of the problems with a horoscope-reading intelligence operative is thatyou cannot keep him at the same station for too long. You have to shift himquickly before he was exposed due to his predictions proving wrong. That was whyMr Kao rarely kept him at any station for more than 18 to 20 months. Heused to have quick transfers. As a result, he had more foreign postings than anyother R&AW officer of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I was reminded of this officer and his exploits as I read a report in thePakistani media as to how the Mullahs of the Ummah are greatly worried over thefaith of the Muslims in astrology and horoscopes. They may read all the fatwasand rantings of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and others, take themseriously and act on them, but they also read equally seriously theastrology columns in their media and act on them. If there is a conflict betweena fatwa of OBL and the predictions of their favourite astrologer, one does notknow whose advice they follow.
The creeping faith in astrology is undermining the Islamic faith even inSaudi Arabia, the sanctum sanctorum of Wahabism. The Daily Times ofLahore reported as follows on October 9, 2006:
"RIYADH: Clerics in Saudi Arabia have warned Arab media against publishing "forbidden" horoscopes, which are hugely popular despite a clerical ban. "This is astrology, which is forbidden and is considered as a form of magic," a committee of senior Saudi clerics said in a statement published on state news agency SPA late on Saturday.
"The committee reminds Muslims and journalists in particular that it is their obligation to take advice from God, His Prophet and the clergy," it said, adding that all schools of Islamic law forbid such practices.
"Believing that a certain star can be the cause of happiness or misfortune is a superstition from the pre-Islamic age...," the prominent clerics said.
Saudi-owned newspapers based in London such as Asharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat have started publishing horoscopes in recent years and fortune tellers appear on Saudi-owned television stations based outside the kingdom. "Many Saudis don’t know their birth date on the Christian calendar so they don’t care about horoscopes, but the new generation is obsessed by them," the editor of a popular Saudi daily told Reuters. He did not want to be identified. "It’s blatantly un-Islamic, we won't do it," he added."
Ever since the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US, intelligence agencies havebeen worried as to how to penetrate Al Qaeda and other jihadi terroristorganisations, how to counter them ideologically, how to improve thepsychological warfare (PSYWAR) against them etc. Can palm and horoscope readingprove better weapons than Predator aircraft and helicopter gunships? These areideas worth exploring.
One of my Muslim sources told me recently that OBL carefully chooses thedates and days for his operations and that certain numbers have a deep religioussignificance for him. He does not use the Christian calendar. While choosing thedates for his operations, he goes by the Muslim calendar.
The source said that it is not sufficient to alert the physical securityset-ups on the anniversary of 9/11 or other major terrorist strikes according tothe Christian calendar. One must find out what was the date according to theMuslim calendar on those days and be careful on accordingly. He said that allintelligence officers and counter-terrorism experts should know how toread and use the Muslim calendar.
Sheikh sahab, where are you? Do you have your horoscope? If not, do you wantone prepared? If so, please do let me know.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India,New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
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