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India-Pakistan
Muslims excluded from IndiaÂ’s spy agency: report
2006-11-07
NEW DELHI - There are scarcely any Muslims working in IndiaÂ’s 10,000-strong external intelligence agency, and neither Muslims nor Sikhs working as bodyguards for the countryÂ’s top leaders, according to officials and media reports. Mainly Hindu but officially secular India has its first Sikh prime minister, Manmohan Singh, but his community is not trusted enough to guard him, according to Outlook magazine this week.
There's a reason for that. Read on.
The magazine said IndiaÂ’s minority Muslims were not trusted by the security apparatus because of fears they could sympathise with the countryÂ’s mainly Muslim neighbour and long-time foe Pakistan.

It said none had been recruited by the country’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), since 1969. The domestic Intelligence Bureau (IB) had decided to recruit Muslims in the l990s, Outlook said, but the organisation still only had a ‘handful’ of Muslim officers.

An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Outlook was wrong to say there were no Muslims in RAW but right to say there were scarcely any. Nor were there any working as bodyguards in the Special Protection Group (SPG) assigned to protecting current and former prime ministers and their families, he said. ‘It is an unwritten rule in the SPG that they cannot recruit a Muslim or a Sikh,’ he told Reuters.

A.S. Dulat, who served as RAW chief from 1999 to 2000, said he did not recall coming across any Muslims in the organisation but could not confirm the Outlook report. ‘If we do not have any Muslims obviously this is a handicap,’ he told Reuters. ‘If there are no Muslims, there must have been a reluctance to take them in. It is also not easy to find that many Muslims.’

Sikhs have not been used as bodyguards since Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her personal Sikh bodyguards in 1984 at the height of a Sikh insurgency, Outlook said.
Oh yeah, that's the reason! D'oh!
Dulat said Sikhs had come ‘under a cloud’ following Gandhi’s murder, but found it hard to believe they would still be excluded from bodyguard duties today.
Oh snicker, this in the land of the thousand year-old memories.
The status of IndiaÂ’s estimated 140 million minority Muslims is the subject of intense debate.

Leaked excerpts of a specially commissioned report, due to be published this month, have shown Muslims are significantly underrepresented in government jobs and in the judiciary but overrepresented in the prison populations in many Indian states. There are just 29,000 Muslims in IndiaÂ’s 1.3-million strong armed forces, according to the defence ministry.
And in any war with the Paks those 29K soldiers are going to be a problem.
But Outlook magazine’s report will also raise concerns about whether India’s intelligence gathering will be effective without Muslim agents and officers. ‘The need for Muslim officers in intelligence-gathering is acute,’ another former RAW chief, Girish Chandra Saxena, was quoted as saying. ‘There are very few people who have knowledge of Urdu or Arabic. The issue has to be addressed.’
Good point, but are you going to be sure you can trust your recruits?
Posted by:Steve White

#1  There has been only one muslim winner of the PVC, the highest Indian award for bravery in combat.

This was Abdul Hamid, who won the award posthumously, in the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

With his jeep mounted recoiless gun, he destroyed seven Patton tanks. His official citation credits him with only 3 kills though

The citation for the Param Vir Chakra awarded to him reads:

COMPANY QUARTER MASTER HAVILDAR ABDUL HAMID
4 GRENADIERS (NO 2639985)

At 0800 hours on 10 September 1965 Pakistan forces launched an attack with a regiment of Patton tanks on a vital area ahead of village Cheema on the Bhikkiwind road in the Khem Karam Sector. Intense artillery shelling preceded the attack. The enemy tanks penetrated the forward position by 0900 hours. Realising the grave situation, Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid who was commander of a RCL gun detachment moved out to a flanking position with his gun mounted on a jeep, under intense enemy shelling and tank fire. Taking an advantageous position, he knocked out the leading enemy tank and then swiftly changing his position, he sent another tank up in flames. By this time the enemy tanks in the area spotted him and brought his jeep under concentrated machine-gun and high explosive fire. Undeterred, Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid kept on firing on yet another enemy tank with his recoilless gun. While doing so, he was mortally wounded by an enemy high explosive shell.

Havildar Abdul HamidÂ’s brave action inspired his comrades to put up a gallant fight and to beat back the heavy tank assault by the enemy. His complete disregard for his personal safety during the operation and his sustained acts of bravery in the face of constant enemy fire were a shining example not only to his unit but also to the whole division and were in the highest traditions of the Indian Army.[2]
Posted by: john   2006-11-07 15:43  

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