Phanindra Nath Banerjee (2 June 1912 – 24 July 1974) was an

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

officer serving as Commissioner (Eastern Zone) of the Special Bureau (field formation of the

Research and Analysis Wing The Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) is the foreign intelligence agency of the Republic of India. The agency's primary function is gathering foreign intelligence, counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, advising Indian policymakers, and a ...

) in Calcutta (now

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

) in the period 1968-1974. He had co-ordinated the Indian intelligence efforts before and during the

Bangladesh War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

, including training of the

Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini, initially called the Mukti Fauj, also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was a big tent armed guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military personnel, paramilitary personnel and civilians during the Ba ...

, securing intelligence for the future Army operations etc. and was R&AW's primary link with the East Pakistan leaders. He had also co-ordinated the merger of

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

into India, along with the then R&AW chief R. N. Kao and R&AW's successive station chiefs in

Gangtok Gangtok (, ) is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Sikkim. The seat of East Sikkim district, eponymous district, Gangtok is in the eastern Himalayas, Himalayan range, at an elevation of . The city's population of 100 ...

, Ajit Singh Syali and Gur Bakhshish Singh Sidhu.

Early life

Banerjee received his M.A. and B.L. degrees from the Presidency College and University Law College, Calcutta, respectively. He got appointed into the IPS through the Emergency Recruitment Scheme on 15 August 1949, with retrospective year of allotment as . Thereafter he served as S.P. of Bankura and in Tripura. He joined central deputation on 4 February 1959 in the Intelligence Bureau.

Sheikh Mujib's London Meetings

As mentioned by Sukharanjan Dasgupta, a journalist who covered the Bangladesh War on behalf of

Anandabazar Patrika ''Anandabazar Patrika'' is an Indian Bengali-language daily newspaper owned by the ABP Group. Its main competitors are ''Bartaman'', '' Ei Samay'', '' Sangbad Pratidin'', " Aajkal", " Jago Bangla", " ganashakti" and " dainik Statesman". Histo ...

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

, then a minister in the

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; born Lal Bahadur Srivastava; 2 October 190411 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as Minister ...

government, had gone to London to represent India in the

January 1966 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference The January 1966 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the 15th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was the first such meeting to be held outside of the United Kingdom, being held in Lagos, Nigeria, and was ...

, where Banerjee arranged a meeting between her and

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangl ...

, in the Southampton Road residence of Tarapada Basu. In that meeting, it was decided that East Pakistan will get separated from Pakistan. Later, in October 1969, Mujib again went to London, on the pretext of appendicitis surgery, the real purpose being a meeting with P.N. Banerjee, secret envoy of Mrs. Gandhi, as mentioned by

Shahriar Kabir Shahriar Kabir (; born 20 November 1950) is a Bangladeshi journalist, filmmaker, human rights activist, war crimes researcher and author of more than 70 books focusing on human rights, communalism, fundamentalism, history, and the Bangladesh ...

. Armed liberation war with Indian help was planned in that meeting, as per Tofael Ahmed.

Role in Bangladesh War

On creation of R&AW in 1968, Banerjee, then Joint Director (East) in the IB, followed Kao into the new organisation, and became posted as Commissioner (equivalent to Joint Secretary) in Calcutta. He became one of Kao's core team. Operations in East Pakistan came under his purview. Banerjee based his operations in Dhaka and went under the alias "Nath Babu"; leaders including

addressed him as such. In one of his deception schemes, he fed misinformation to the Americans, by using

Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad (; 27 February 1919 – 5 March 1996) was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the Minister of Commerce in the third Mujib Rahman ministry under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and assumed the presidency of Bangladesh after the A ...

, that India was in no position to undertake a military operation in East Pakistan due to insurgency in

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

and the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal; and all the while, Indian army got ready to enter East Pakistan, under the guise of tracking the Naxalites. Banerjee was the overall in-charge, from the Indian side, of the provisional Bangladesh government-in-exile, established in Calcutta on 14 April 1971, and coordination of all overt and covert guerrilla operations inside East Pakistan.

Role in Merger of Sikkim

Later, in December 1972, when the Chogyal (king) of Sikkim was pressuring India to revise the Indo-Sikkim Treaty, the Prime Minister of India,

, called Kao and asked him to do something about Sikkim. Banerjee, under whose purview the Sikkim operations came, prepared a strategy within a fortnight, which was instantly cleared by Mrs. Gandhi and ultimately culminated into merger of Sikkim into India. Banerjee and Ajit Singh Syali (then OSD in Gangtok and later, chief of R&AW) launched an operation codenamed ''Janamat and Twilight'', by which they undermined the monarchy by strengthening the agitations of the Sikkim National Congress, led by

Kazi Lhendup Dorjee Kazi Lhendup Dorjee (11 October 1904 – 28 July 2007), also spelled Lhendup Dorji or Lhendup Dorji Khangsarpa was an Indian politician who was the first chief minister of Sikkim from 1975 to 1979 after its union with India. He was the first Pri ...

. By 8 April 1973, the Chogyal was forced to sign a draft treaty with India, which stated that the administration would be taken over by India.How RN Kao – India’s top spymaster - helped integrate Sikkim into India
Neeraj Chauhan, ''The Hindustan Times'', 13 December 2019, quoting from the book, R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster by Nitin A. Gokhale

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, P. N. 1912 births 1974 deaths Indian Police Service officers Intelligence Bureau (India) University of Calcutta alumni People of the Research and Analysis Wing Spymasters