B. Raman

Who was B. Raman?

Bahukutumbi Raman, also referred to as B. Raman, was an Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India and one-time head of the counter-terrorism division of India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing. Until his death in 2013, he was the director of the Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. B Raman was also a contributor to the South Asia Analysis Group. As a former intelligence official, B Raman regularly wrote about security, counter-terrorism and military issues regarding India and South Asia. He was a firm believer of Gandhi-Nehru rule, and had often proposed it as a solution to many of India's political uncertainties and socio-economic woes.

Having been one of the few surviving officers who were a witness to the creation of R&AW during 1968 by RN Kao, his analysis on Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and China have been an asset to the Intelligence community. Raman was the author of a memoir he wrote of his days in the R&AW titled "Kaoboys of R&AW - Down Memory Lane".

Raman was an IPS officer of the 1961 batch who served for a time in the Madhya Pradesh cadre before deputation to the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi. There, he was soon noticed by India’s legendary spymaster, R.N. Kao, who took him to the Research and Analysis Wing when it was formed in 1968. From very early on in his career, Raman displayed an unwavering commitment to his work. This, along with his vast knowledge and the ability to recall details of events even after the passage of decades made him a near ideal intelligence officer These rare qualities prompted Kao and many of his successors to entrust Raman with some of the very sensitive tasks that the R&AW undertook.