Vikram Sood

Vikram Sood is the former head of India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and an advisor to the Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think tank in New Delhi. Sood was an officer of the Indian Postal Service (IPoS) before he joined the intelligence organisation R&AW and later served as its spymaster from 2000 to 2003. He retired as a career intelligence officer with 31 years of service on 31 March 2003. He trained under the mentorship of B. Raman and interviewed by Gentleman R.N Kao. He is the author of the book The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief's Insights into Espionage published in 2018, which according to Sood is not a memoir but a beginner's guide to intelligence and espionage.

Vikram Sood
Director of Research and Analysis Wing
In office
2000–2003
Preceded byA. S. Dulat
Succeeded byC. D. Sahay
Personal details
NationalityIndian
ProfessionSpymaster

Education

Sood did his M.A. in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi.[1]

Career

Sood was an officer of the Indian Postal Service (IPoS), a part of India's civil services, and was moved into the Research and Analysis Service (RAS) cadre in 1966.[2][3] In a personal tribute in Rediff, Sood says his mentor was B. Raman, one of the founders of R&AW.[4] He became familiar with Raman in 1972, when he was assigned to understudy his role and later to take over from him until 1974.[4] Sood was asked to take over charge from Raman once again in 1983, and on a final occasion on Raman's retirement in 1994.[4]

Sood's appointment was different from others, as he became a R&AW chief without having served as a police officer.[5] Sood had replaced S Sunderrajan who was an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Delhi cadre.[2] Sood served as the head of R&AW from 2000 to 2003 during the period when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India.[6] He retired as a career intelligence officer with 31 years of service on 31 March 2003.[7] As the chief of R&AW he was the designated Secretary (R) and also the director general of security.[8]

As of 2019, Sood has been acting as an advisor to the Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think tank in New Delhi.[1] He writes regularly on national security, foreign relations and strategic issues.[9]

Views

Pakistan

At the event for his book launch, The Unending Game, Sood said that the Pakistan Army is the "largest corporate entity in Pakistan" and that Kashmir is being used by the Pakistan Army merely as a justification to maintain power in Pakistan.[10][11] Sood takes a hardline stance, saying that Pakistan would need to "shut the machinery of terrorism" and provide proof that changes are happening for dialogue to happen.[12] In 2016 he had voiced similar hardliner opinions, stating that dialogue with Pakistan is pointless and that unless Pakistan changes its approach, dialogue between the two countries should not happen.[13]

In relation to Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national who is in Pakistan's custody since March 2016 and is being tried by a military court on alleged charges of being a R&AW agent, Sood says that Pakistan has no "leverage" over India because of this matter. In an interview in 2019 he stated, "No spy worth his salt will be caught with his passport. The charges against him are laughable."[14]

China

When it comes to China-Pakistan links, Sood is of the opinion that China takes actions such as supporting Pakistan in the UNSC in relation to Masood Azhar because of fear of retaliation from Islamic groups in Xinjiang (an autonomous region in China which partly borders Pakistan) other than of course protecting their interests in Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan in relation to CPEC.[15][16][17] When it comes to just China, Sood says that the capabilities of China are much more than Pakistan and that India should take note.[12] This statement was made during a seminar on 17 February 2019, three days after the Pulwama attack, where he had also said, "China in control of Pakistan is even worse."[16]

Publications
Main article: The Unending Game
Vikram Sood at the book launch

In 2018 Sood wrote, The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief's Insights into Espionage, published by Penguin Viking. According to Sood, his book is not a memoir but a beginner's guide to espionage, a reference manual on intelligence.[18][19] The book, which is divided into three concept related sections that are titled as "Tradecraft", "Inside Intelligence" and "What Lies Ahead", covers espionage during the two world wars, secret societies, psychological warfare in India, KGB and CIA interference in Indian politics, Pakistan and ISI, as well as intelligence failures in the world such as the 9/11 attacks and the 26/11 attacks among other things.[20][21][22][23] Vappala Balachandran reviewed the book, writing that it is "a low-profile but solid contribution".[24]

Preceded by
A. S. Dulat		 Director of R&AW
2000–2003		 Succeeded by
C. D. Sahay

References
  1. "Vikram Sood". Observer Research Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  2. Kutty, C K (2 February 2005). "A RAW hand". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  3. "Vikram Sood, new RAW chief". The Hindu. Press Trust of India (PTI). 13 December 2000. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Sood, Vikram (17 June 2013). "A personal tribute and salute to B Raman". Rediff. Archived from the original on 16 November 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  5. Yadav, RK (22 September 2016). "How RAW, India's intelligence agency, fared under 21 spymasters in 48 years". DailyO. India Today Group. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  6. North, Andrew (4 December 2012). "Why al-Qaeda finds no recruits in India". BBC.
  7. Dutta, Amrita Nayak (2 December 2018). "From UPSC to RAW chief, Indian postal service officers keep beating IAS, IPS to top posts". The Print. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  8. "Who will succeed RAW chief Vikram Sood?". Rediff. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  9. People. "Vikram Sood". Observer Research Foundation. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  10. "Pakistan's army is a corporate entity that supplies heroin all over country: Former R&AW chief". The Print. PTI. 14 August 2018. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. Kumar, Aishwarya (14 August 2018). "Kashmir Is An Excuse For Pakistan Army To Control Pakistan: Former RAW Chief Vikram Sood". News18. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  12. "Former RAW chief Vikram Sood: Wrong time for Pak talks". dna. 23 August 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  13. "Talks useless until Pakistan changes it attitude: Ex-RAW chief Vikram Sood". The Indian Express. Asian News International. 4 October 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. "Pakistan lacks leverage over India on Kulbhushan Jadhav, no spy worth his salt will be caught with passport: ex-R&AW chief Vikram Sood". Firstpost. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  15. Suares, Coreena (18 February 2019). "India must spend more on intelligence, says Ex-RAW chief Vikram Sood". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  16. "Pulwama attack not handiwork of single man, says Ex-RAW chief". The Economic Times. Press Trust of India. 17 February 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. Sood, Vikram (12 July 2018). "Surgical strikes in PoK open up several valid options to keep Pakistan in check". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  18. Ghose, Sandip (12 August 2018). "For espionage buffs, ex-Raw chief Vikram Sood's 'The Unending Game' is a fascinating read". The Print. Archived from the original on 4 January 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  19. Haidar, Suhasini (13 August 2018). "R&AW is just a service provider, says ex-chief". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  20. Kashani, Sarwar (8 August 2018). "The not-so-raunchy side of the world of spies". Yahoo News India. IANS India Private Limited. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  21. Banerjie, Indranil (3 August 2018). "Espionage is much more than cloak and dagger ops". The Asian Age. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  22. "Intelligence agency heads should be selected on performance - Ex-R&AW chief". The Economic Times. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  23. Sarin, Ritu (25 August 2018). "A delicate truth". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 2 October 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  24. Balachandran, Vappala (31 August 2018). "The Unending Game by Vikram Sood: The shadowy world of espionage". India Today. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
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