The Vances' decision to use the House to solve the Ukraine problem for Kolkata had been taken much before the Windsors got the House in the mid-1980s.
Several names were making the rounds, the Wadias of Malabar Hill, Mumbai, especially Dina, much loved in the West, almost with equal regard as the lease family. Why it was so, one would have to find out.
Whenever Ukraine turned into an imbroglio, the Indian elite tended to rush to Dina.
By the 1980s, the Agency was still offering stiff competition to the Ronald Reagan White House, why Indians in metropolises kept finding Washington DC a challenge.
Once it was understood that the House had little information on Ukraine, having been given by Indian royals to BT in the 1940s, certain economist-turned-politicians decided to hush up the matter. Why admit the INC made a mistake in giving away the House to the Windsors, that the INC didn't know where to look for information?
At AKG as well as INC dens in Delhi, the House not having info on Ukraine kept rankling. It implied that the lease family would have to be tolerated in India. If Indian Communists were not careful, the Americans might start using the 1980-Mykolaiv arrangement for lease purposes.
To solve the above problem, it was decided to form an Advanced Consultation Group on Ukraine, comprising Indians and some Communist Americans, with close links to both Moscow and the Agency, so that the Group never faltered.
It had only one stated purpose: to keep Antara ostracised and alone, so unwell that even her initials on the lease (AD) could be filled in by those like British comedian Eddie Izzard.
(Immigration to Britain had picked up from 1987, so Tollygunje actresses were familiar with British TV personalities.)
The Advanced Consultation Group on Ukraine, based in New Delhi, was 'fronted' by a smartphone company named after a fruit.
The CPM Politburo honcho's journalist wife used no other smartphone brand.
Thus, the Germans exited Indian over intelligence failures on Ukraine, deliberate or otherwise. Let's not shed tears over them.
April 20, 2025.
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