Rameshwar Nath Kao, popularly known as ‘Kao’ was an Indian spymaster and the founding chief of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from 1968 to 1977. Notably, R&AW under Kao’s directions played a vital role in the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan and the merger of Sikkim in 1977 into India.
The R&AW was formed in 1968 by bifurcating the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Kao, who a deputy director in the IB was given the charge of India’s external intelligence agency. Kao began with a samll team of reportedly around 250 agents from the IB. These agenst laters knowna s “Kaoboys”.
Kao was was born in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi on May 10, 1918 to a Kashmiri Pandit family, who later migrated from Srinagar to Uttar Pradesh. He was brought up by his uncle Pandit Trilokinath Kao.
– He did his schooling in Baroda and completed matriculation in 1932 and intermediate in 1934.
– Kao pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lucknow University. He then chose to pursue a master’s degree in English Literature at Allahabad University.
– Kao, for a while, took up a job in a cigarette company floated by Pt. Jag Mohan Narain Mushran, the then Chief Justice of the Benares State.
– Kao joined the Indian Imperial Police in 1940 after clearing Civil services examination. He was first posted at Cawnpore (now Kanpur) as an Assistant Superintendent of Police.
– Kao was deputed to the IB on the eve of Independence.
– In the late 50s, he sent to Ghana to help the then government of prime minister Kwame Nkrumah set up an intelligence and security organisation there.
– Kao, along with British and Chinese agents, probed the Kashmir Princess, Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft owned by Air India, crash that was believed to be carried out to assassinate the then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.
– Kao was one of the architects of India’s victory in the 1971 war against Pakistan and making Sikkim the part of India in 1975.
– Kao created the National Security Guard (NSG)during the Punjab militancy during the 1980s.
– He served as a security adviser to both Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. After Indira Gandhi was defeated in the 1977 elections, Kao also resigned from the post. However, he returned after Indira Gandhi won the general elections in 1980.
Kao died on January 20, 2002 at the age of 83 years. In order to commemorate the legacy of its founder R&AW created the annual R.N. Kao Memorial Lecture. The first lecture took place in 2006 on the fifth anniversary of Kao’s death, and was delivered by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
