Who is Alok Tiwari?

Alok Tiwari is the Indian R&AW agent who was exposed while posted in Nepal and became a scandal for the then Director R&AW Ashok Chaturvedi.

Alok Tiwari came to the notice of international agencies when he accompanied India’s first Defence Attaché to Israel in April 1996. Just two months later, when Dr. Abdul Kalam paid the secret visit to Israel in June 1996, he accompanied the Indian head of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a manager working at DRDO. As it later turned out, Alok Tiwari was actually working for RAW and DRDO was just a front. When Indian Air Chief Marshal S. K. Sareen visited Israel in July 1996, Alok accompanied him, making a third visit to Israel within a period of four months.

In September 1999 when Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra came to meet Barak in Israel he was also accompanied by Alok Tiwari. After the return within a year, Alok Tiwari and another security analyst finalized a document based on their discussions in Israel. It was 1999’s visit which is thought to have alerted Pakistan’s ISI, which might be the reason he did not accompany L. K. Advani in June 2000 (although his later appointment at the important Nepal station contradicts the theory). Advani’s visit was important as during this visit new deals related to Mossad and Shabak espionage and cooperation with R&AW are finalized and as a result Israel was allowed to establish its own network to operate from India. Also, L.K. Advani discussed Pakistan’s nuclear program and coordination between the two countries on an operation for disarming Pakistan. During the visit, Alok Tiwari’s report was also discussed. After 2000, Alok Tiwari was shifted from Israeli operations to Nepal. The report Tiwari prepared was taken over by his successor which in July was given the final form as Operation Blue Tulsi.

Seven years later, while posted in Nepal in December 2007 the Nepal Weekly magazine revealed that and entire team of R&AW was working at the Indian Embassy in Nepal working against the Government of Nepal. Intriguingly magazine also revealed the names of all the R&AW agents working at the Indian embassy in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. They were: Suresh Dhundiya (R&AW's station chief in Kathmandu), and his deputies Alok Tiwari (posted as First Secretary Education) and K. V. Johri (a counsellor). It was also publicized that Dhundiya was being replaced as station chief by Alok Tiwari.

The Nepal Weekly magazine which in the past has been associated with Pakistan’s ISI blew the lid off the entire RAW operation in Nepal. This had come at a time when in Pakistan was facing severe political, economic and security crisis. It is presumed by some of the Pakistani reporters that the involvement of RAW in Pakistan’s unrest in 2007 was due to the operation paper produced by Alok Tiwari in 2000. As a result the ISI used its assets in Nepal to expose RAW’s entire setup in the country.