Did USSR Control Indian Public Discourse In Indira’s Time?

The documents that the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of the United States has recently declassified provide a vivid picture of how the Soviet Union, through media houses, books and magazines, shaped discourse in India. “The Soviets enjoy nearly unfettered access to the pages of Indian newspapers, largely through the efforts of the soviet information department,” the document reads.

The communist regime in the secretive state placed over 160,000 news and opinion pieces in in Indian newspapers, the documents reveal. These CIA documents, dated December 1985, have been declassified after a mandatory classification period of 25 years.

Here is what the documents say:

According to a former KGB operative, who published a book based on classified Soviet documents in 2005, the Soviet Union had 10 Indian newspapers on its payroll during Indira Gandhi’s tenure.