588. Naresh's Grievance

Summoned by Gupta, the Intelligence Chief, Naresh went to the Chief's cabin.

"Mr. Naresh! You are a senior official of our department. Your contribution to our department has been immense. Because of the intelligence gathered by you on various occasions, through the surveillance activities managed by you, I have earned a good name from the top echelons of our government. I have also been constantly appraising my superiors about your valuable contributions" said Gupta.

"I am aware, sir" said Naresh, tersely.

"But I observe that, of late, you have been feeling unhappy about something. Do you have any problems in your personal life?"

"No such thing, sir."

"Tell me. What is the problem you have here?"

"I don't have any problem, sir" said Naresh and paused, as if hesitating to say something.

"If it is not a problem, it should be a grievance. Shoot!" said Gupta, encouragingly.

"It is nothing, sir... Last month, I gave you a scoop about a secret plan of our enemy country. My contact in that country had taken great risks and gathered the information."

"Yes, of course. I had shared that information with my superiors and they acted on it. It was on the basis of your information that the government launched an important operation. I am not expected to tell you this, but I have recorded your good work in your personal file too."

"Oh, thank you, sir!" said Naresh, enthused by what Gupta's words. "But..." he added.

"But?"

"You didn't accept my report straightaway. You got it verified through a friend of you working in the intelligence agency of another country. Only after he had confirmed the correctness of my information, did you inform your superiors about this. This made me feel that you didn't consider the intelligence gathered by me reliable. I should admit that this has dented my confidence and enthusiasm" said Naresh.

"Mr. Naresh! I am going to show you a file. This is my personal file."

Gupta opened a small cabinet near his seat, took out a file, opened a page and showed it to Naresh.

Naresh read that page and quietly returned the file to Gupta.

"This happened two years back. The intelligence was gathered by me through my contact in the foreign country. But since the issue was highly sensitive, I wanted to confirm it, through another source. Just as I did in your case, I asked a friend of mine working in the agency of one of our friendly countries to verify the information and confirm. The feedback I got from him was shocking. The information I had received from my source had been somewhat outdated. My contact had sent me the information, without knowing about a subsequent development, which had changed the scenario. If I had sent the information collected by me through my contact to the government, it would have led to some wrong decisions by the government. After that experience, I have made it a policy to double-check all intelligence on sensitive matters. So, don't feel that I have underestimated the value of your work."

"I understand now, sir. It was my folly that I didn't understand this earlier" said Naresh, feeling remorseful.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 59

Managing Intelligence Operations

Verse 588 (in Tamil):

oRRu oRRith thandha poruLaiyum maRRumOr
oRRinAl oRRik koLal.

Meaning:

A king should get the intelligence gathered by a spy verified

by deploying another spy.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'narEshin manakkuRai' by the same author.) 

Verse 589
Verse 587