Principled and brave officer (1920-2015)
KSankaran Nair was born on 20 December 1920, at Ottapalam in Kerala State. His father was Superintendent of Post Offices. He graduated from Loyala College, and was not successful in the examination for ICS which he attempted twice. He qualified for the Imperial Police (IP) and joined the Police Training School at Vellore in April 1943. He was posted to Cocanada, the District HQ of East Godavari. In 1948, he was posted as District Superintendent of Police in East Godavari. He had in the meanwhile passed the BL examination in law.
He had a good experience of police work, ranging from brilliant detection to managed confessions and encounters. The Rajamundry Police Station had a unique system of crime detection and punishment. The area was inhabited by criminal tribes. When any burglaries were reported, the police Sub-Inspector would force some members of the tribe to confess. They got a light sentence and the police looked after their families during their period of imprisonment. It gave a good performance report to the police station!
He left for Delhi on 5 December 1950, to join the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Earlier, he had declined to join the IB due to his aversion for sycophancy prevailing there. He looked forward to it now as he was promised a posting to Paris. Such hopes were dashed as Mr. Mullik, Director, IB, decided a change in his duties. He was advised to learn Burmese at the Foreign Languages School. Mullik appreciated his work, but ticked him off on some trivial matter. Nair requested to be reverted to Madras. The offending file was closed. On one occasion, he accompanied Prime Minister (PM) Nehru to Amritsar for security arrangements during the Congress session. He was put up in the circuit house where the PM and Indira Gandhi were staying. In the morning at breakfast, Indira Gandhi responded with a smile to his salute. A little later, some Congressmen came and started looking for the sandals of Indira Gandhi. They asked Nair also to join in the search. He replied that his job was looking after security and not to search for sandals. Next morning, Indira Gandhi was icy when he wished her.
On request from Nkrumah, PM of Ghana, Kao was sent to organise their Intelligence Agency, and he was succeeded by Nair in December 1959. He accomplished this job brilliantly in two years, and gained the complete confidence of Nkrumah. He returned to Delhi in early 1963, and was assigned to Pakistan desk in the IB. Nair refuted the allegation of inept intelligence gathering by the IB in the 1965 War by sending 65 reports sent by the IB to the Army. Indira Gandhi had approved his name for the post of Director IB on retirement of Kao. Sanjay Gandhi called him to judge his loyalty. Nair declined and the proposal to promote him was cancelled. Nair joined RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), the new organisation set up for external intelligence, as deputy to Kao in 1968. He is credited with the success in 1971 War by training Mukti Bahini guerrillas.
Three months after taking over as RAW chief, he requested to be reverted to Madras when PM Morarji Desai wanted to downgrade the post of Director. He convinced Desai not to stop aid to Chakma refugees from Bangladesh who were being pushed out from their land. He stood up to the next PM Charan Singh too on the issue of rank of Director, and was appointed Secretary to the Minorities Commission. He did not oblige the Chairman of the Commission who wanted government pay for his driver and cook.
He retired from the Commission in December 1978. He was detailed to organise the Olympic Games in Delhi and served as High Commissioner in Singapore. He had a sterling character not open to any compromise. He retired in 1988, and passed away on 17 November 2015.
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– Brigadier Suresh Chandra Sharma (retd)