Desai Cia Agent
India’s PM was once accused of a shocking betrayal. He was suspected of being a secret CIA Agent.
On June 3, 1983, Indians woke up to a strange headline. India’s former Prime Minister Morarji Desai was accused of being an asset for America’s Central Intelligence Agency. The accusation was made by world-famous American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
Hersh had made his name by exposing U.S military atrocities in Vietnam. In 1983, he released a new book on President Richard Nixon and his top diplomat Henry Kissinger. Hersh claimed that America had an informant inside the Indian Cabinet before the 1971 India-Pakistan war And that informant was Morarji Desai.
Desai had been one of India’s most prominent politicians for decades. He was Chief Minister of Bombay Province and then a senior Cabinet minister before falling out with Indira Gandhi. He left the Congress & became India’s PM between 1977-79. Hersh claimed that during the 1960s, Desai was a CIA informant.
His info was so valuable Desai was paid $20,000/year. Before the 1971 war, Desai told America that Indira Gandhi was planning a lightning campaign to conquer East Pakistan. This shaped America’s whole policy on the war. According to Hersh, Desai was considered a “star performer”.
His allegations weren’t new since Nixon, Kissinger and CIA chief Helms had all referred to a highly placed informant in India at the time of the 1971 war.
Hersh himself quoted sources in the CIA & America’s government. By 1983, Morarji Desai was no longer Prime Minister.
But, in India, Hersh’s allegations caused uproar. Desai rejected the story as “sheer madness”. Even his political opponents opposed Hersh’s allegations. Two American Ambassadors to India also rejected the story. India’s media questioned the accuracy of Hersh’s report.
First, they pointed out factual mistakes. Hersh had said Desai was in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet during the 1971 war. But that was factually inaccurate since Desai had been fired by Gandhi in 1967. Hersh said Desai had passed on critical information to the CIA through the 1960s. But for much of that time, Desai was not in positions of any real power. So his value to the CIA would have been limited
Despite this, Hersh said he had documentary evidence proving his claims. Hersh said Desai was anti-Soviet and pro-Western - which led him to do what he did.
But that wasn’t necessarily true since his policy even as Prime Minister between 1977 - 79 had been more balanced. So there were serious questions about whether Hersh’s story was accurate. But in 1989, an American jury cleared Hersh of libel charges.
While Desai may have been able to cast serious doubt on Hersh’s story, he wasn’t able to prove that he was purposely slandered him. The case also gradually faded from public memory.
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