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MODINAMA 13 - How India’s Space Program was Sabotaged - Part IIShare on facebook Share on email Share on twitter Share on pinterest_share Share on linkedin Share on google_plusone_share More Sharing Services70

Nambi Narayanan Describes the Targeting of ISRO by Shreekumar Masterminded Team of IB Officials

Author(s) : Madhu Purnima Kishwar

In Part 1 of this article I had described the role of IPS officer R B Sreekumar in fabricating the ISRO spy scandal allegedly at the behest of the CIA. (Read article: RB Shreekumar: Hero No. 2 of the Secular Brigade - Part I) In Part II, leading ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan describes the absurd charges on which he and others were arrested  and hounded  in order to sabotage the chances of ISRO developing its own satellite technology. This caused long term setback or India’s space program.

I interviewed Nambi Narayanan at his home in Trivandrum on 26 August 2013. The publishing of Nambi Narayanan’s interview was delayed because some of the video files got corrupted while we were transcribing them. It took a while to get them sorted out so that I could post the video interview along with a written account of what Nambi had told me.

However, in the meantime, I brought his plight to the notice of several people who can help Nambi Narayanan fight his battle. When I met Narendra Modi for my third interview in early September, I asked him if he knew about Sreekumar’s role in the ISRO spy scandal and described Nambi’s current plight. Modi made it a point to meet Nambi Narayanan when he landed in Trivandrum on 26 August on his way to attend the 60th birthday celebrations of Ma Amritanadmayee. That is how this case came to the notice of the BJP leaders and Times Now. I sincerely hope Arnab Goswami will follow this case to its logical conclusion.Nambi Narayanan’s

lone battle deserves far greater attention than it has received thus far.

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Nambi Narayanan was one of the top scientists of India when, in 1994, he was implicated in a patently false case by the Kerala Police and Intelligence Bureau ( IB) officials of the Government of India. He was falsely charged with selling satellite technology to Pakistan through two semi-educated Maldivian women.

Nambi Narayanan held several important posts when the ISRO spy scandal rocked India. He was Project Director for the second stage of the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) as well as Project Director for the fourth stage of PSLV and Project Director for the Cryogenic project, which is the one which is needed for the GSLV (Geo Satellite Launch Vehicle)  In addition, he was Deputy Director, Liquid Propulsions Systems Centre, Associate Project Director for PSLV and GLSV, etc. etc. In short, he was the key person at ISRO for developing liquid propulsion systems.

Narayanan was arrested on 30/10/1994 at the behest of  a team of

IB officials on charges of selling India’s technology secrets to Pakistan.The consequent hounding that Narayanan suffered led to a tragic and sudden closure to the brilliant career of this rocket scientist and marred his personal life and health irreparably. A CBI enquiry discovered that R.B. Shreekumar, who was then posted as Joint Director, IB, at Trivandrum, played a leading role in fabricating the case as part of a calculated move to destroy or irreparably damage ISRO in order to prevent this premier space research institution from emerging as a real competitor to the US and France in space technology.

Brian Harvey, in his well-researched book Russia in Space--The Failed Frontier (Springer in collaboration with Praxis Publishing, UK) and Rajshekhar Nair in his book Spies in Space, (Konark Publishers) have both brought together a wealth of evidence to prove that the CIA was behind the targeting of ISRO and destroying the lives of some of its best scientists. Worse still, it terrorized the entire scientific community at ISRO. The institution lost much of its momentum and self-confidence which led to a loss of precious years in achieving the goal of developing satellite launch technology for India. For years, Nambi Narayanan has been pressing the Government of India to investigate the alleged role of CIA in the sabotage of ISRO. But the Government has paid no heed.

I have had to take liberties with condensing a three hour long interview of Nambi Narayanan to cull out key points. The unedited video recorded interview is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GNnxc6PNw4

Narayanan began by saying,

“My aim was to equip this country as a space power. You become a space power only if you are capable of launching Geo Synchronous launch vehicles which enable you to throw a geo synchronous satellite to be stationed at a height of

36,000 kms. For example, today almost all the communication needs-- telecommunications, television transmissions, and telephones etc.- are coming through the so-called Geo Synchronous system. And all the countries are after such a system because it provides the basis for a huge commercial business. In the year 1994, the total business estimated on this score alone was US $ 300 billion. That is the kind of business potential it has. As far as I am concerned, I was trying to equip India for that.

If we had launched it in the year 2001, we would have long ago been in the field of selling the Geosynchronous launch vehicles. I told you US $ 300 billion is the estimated business. Because our cost is one third, it is safe to assume that we would have at least 50% share of that business? That makes it US $ 150 billion.

A big team of over 20,000 people were working on this project. It was all derailed because US, our main competitor, could not digest India as a effective rival.

In 1991, ISRO had signed an Agreement with Russia—a country which had alongstanding friendly relation with India. ISRO was all set to have the technology and the capability ready for launch by 1999 or 2000. Thus in 1994, when the spy scandal hit us, ISRO was just 6-7 years from launching itsown satellite. Thus far, Russia, China, America and France are the only countries capable of geo synchronous launch. If India became capable of building the cryogenic technology, then it too would be counted as a real competitor in space power.

Out of these four, Russia and China are not really into the commercial aspect of this technology due to reasons connected with their internal policies. Only America and France are thriving in the commercial domain of this

technology. If India becomes successful, we would become the third country in the entire world to develop commercial success from this system.

Russia had agreed to the transfer of technology to develop cryogenic-based fuels for Rs. 235 crore when the US and France were offering the same technology for Rs 950 crore and Rs. 650 crore respectively. This had upset the French and Americans. US President George W. Bush wrote to Russia raising objections against this agreement and even threatening to blacklist Russia from the select five clubs. Russia under Boris Yeltsin succumbed to US pressure and denied cryogenic technology to India. To by-pass this monopoly, India signed a new agreement with Russia to fabricate four cryogenic engines after floating a global tender without a formal transfer of technology. ISRO had already reached a consensus with Kerala High Tech Industries Limited (Kettech) MTAR and Godrej which would have provided the cheapest tender for fabricated engines. All this was done through a due transparent process by the Contract Negotiating Committee of ISRO.

According to Narayanan, “liquid propulsion systems consist of two things. “One is the earth soluble propellant; that means you can store it under room temperature. And another one is cryogenic. Cryogenic are storable at sub-zero temperatures.

Cryogenic is also a liquid propellant but it has higher energy. The energy index for the liquid propulsion is something like 290 seconds: it is measured in terms of seconds. And the liquid cryogenics have an energy level of 460. That is the kind of difference. Now if you want to be economical, if you want to be cost effective, then you need to have the cryogenic systems. And the class, the weight which we need to launch is in the order of about 4 tonnes of satellite. We were working towards that. And I was instrumental on the liquid propulsion side.To launch, to reach this capability, you need solid propulsion, you need liquid propulsion, you need cryogenic and you need control guidance and you need electronics, computers, instrumentation, you need launchpads, handling

infrastructures, etc. etc. I was looking after the liquid propulsion systems--taking care of almost half of it in terms of capability.”

But all this was blasted by a team of Intelligence Bureau Officials, of whom R.B. Sreekumar was a leading member, cracking down on selected ISRO scientists on charges of being spies and selling India’s “defence” technology secrets to Pakistan. Nambi explains:

The situation is like this --you want to get into a railway compartment which is already occupied. But you are not allowed to get in because everybody inside says ‘There is no space for you’. But somehow you manage to get in. Then you join the crowd and stop other people from entering. This is what this space business is like. America and France have this monopoly in doing this satellite launch. Even today we are getting ours launched by the Americans and French. If we had got our own cryogenic, then we need not have depended on these people. Number two, we could have sold the launch service to so many other countries in the world and made big money for India, which we describe as payload, into the geosynchronous orbit. The Americans normally charge around US$ 95,000 per kg. And the French price is close to that. But our cost was in the order of about US$ 30,000 per kg—almost one third of the rate charged by Americans and French. Our price is relatively low.

Now this kind of competition could not be digested by our rivals who have a monopoly. So they destroyed our capability by getting ourtop scientists implicated in a fabricated spy case. All of a sudden, they charged us for

having transferred this technology to Pakistan through these Maldivian women. Later we found out, one of the accused Maldivian woman could just about converse in English but was not well educated. Another one could'nt speak a word of English. She came purely for the purpose of putting her child in a school in Bangalore. She also had a health problem and wanted to go through heart surgery. But they landed into this soup without having the remotest connection with our space program. Poor women, they were trapped in Trivandrum. They were from a country which is in a weak position vis-s-vis India, so they really suffered. They were forced to make statements against themselves through sheer third degree torture. Charges against them were a total fabrication of Kerala Police and IB.

Brian Harvey has the following to say about the "dirty tricks campaign" of the US:

The KVD-1 had now become caught up in a much bigger game - the negotiations between America and Russia for the construction of the International Space Station. Russia suggested compensation for loss of the Indian contract and the $400m paid by the United States for seven American flights to Mir

may have become part of the equation.

The negotiations were later described as very tough, but the Indians managed to negotiate a lower price and extra engines in exchange for the loss of technology transfer. In addition, two models would be supplied to test how they would best fit the launcher shroud.

According to some American sources, the Russians transferred the production technology in any case. The appropriate documents, instruments and equipment were allegedly transferred in four shipments from Moscow to Delhi on covert flights by Ural Airlines. As a cover, they used ‘legitimate’ transhipments of Indian aircraft technology travelling the other way

to Moscow for testing in Russian wind-tunnels. The plot thickened when, in October 1994, two senior scientists at the Indian Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, S. Nambi Narayanan and P. Sasikumaran, were arrested for ‘spying for foreign countries’. Eventually, the Central Bureau of Investigation admitted that the charges against S. Nambi Narayanan and P. Sasikumaran were false and baseless and they were freed. Later, the United States was accused of setting them up as part of a dirty tricks campaign against the sale of the KVD-1.(“Russia in Space: The Failed Frontier”, Springer in collaboration with Praxis Publishing, UK, p. 259]…

Six people were arrested--4 from ISRO plus 2 Maldivian women. Their main catch was Nambi. The second ISRO victim was Sashi Kumaran, who was arrested from Ahmedabad where he was then posted. Third one to be arrested was SK Sharma a small time

supply contractor for ISRO. The fourth victim was Chandrashekar, an officially appointedagent of the Russian company with whom ISRO had the contract for the cryogenics.

Narayanan explains how he figured out their agenda and why he and key people of his cryogenics team were targeted in particular:

I was working with cryogenics as project director, Shashi Kumar was deputy project director, and Chandrashekhar was working as the agent of the cryogenic company. Reddy, an excellent person contributing to ISRO’s growth through his own company was also alleged to be a part of our spy ring. Incidentally, he had also gone with me to Russia to understand cryogenic technology. All of us were connected with the development of cryogenic technology which was their main target.

The reason I was their prime target is that I was capable of analysing multidisciplinary situations—from the mechanical, to electrical, civil, guidance, control, metallurgy, fabrication-- everything involved in putting together the whole system.  Without a multi-functional person like me coordinating the project, the satellite launch could not be achieved.

I soon realized that they were not reallly interested ininvestigating the case.  For example, I was arrested on 30th

November 1994 by the Kerala Police (KP). Now on the same day, the Kerala Police gave a recommendation to transfer the case to the CBI. Now if the recommendation  for handing over the case to CBI is also on the same day, they could have left it to the CBI to arrest me.

But they didn’t wait because they knew that given the lack of evidence, CBI would not have arrested me. The big question is why did the Kerala Police and IB cook up this spy story? It

could not have been a case of error of judgement simply because the person at the sub inspector level who did the dirty job didn’t even know how to spell cryogenic. Those policemen who carried out raids and did all the criminal acts couldn’t possibly have imagined this story.  This was actually masterminded by some senior officers of IB.

Simultaneously, the Russians who are India’s old friends told us that they wouldnot be able to transfer the technology. Why would they back out all of a sudden? This is where the CIA is suspected to have had a role to play.  Now, in any crime, you have to find out the possible motive. The next question to ask is: who could be the beneficiary?

Their actions made it obvious that the motive was to remove ISRO from emerging as a competitor. And the beneficiaries are obviously those companies which were competing with ISRO. But they couldn’t do it directly. They had to get it done through some other people. Who are these people? Our own people