Doubts still haunt Pokhran-II claims

NEW DELHI: The controversy over Pokhran-II refused to go away with nuclear scientists K Santhanam and P K Iyengar contesting Anil Kakodkar’s claims on the nuclear tests. Mr Santhanam, a retired DRDO scientist who was associated with Pokhran-II, accused the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of ‘ignoring facts’ on the yield of the Pokhran-II tests. “Figures don’t lie, but liars will figure. He chose to ignore facts for his own reasons,” Mr Santhanam told an agency.

Former AEC chief and nuclear scientist P K Iyengar also questioned the yield of the thermonuclear device and said Mr Kakodkar did not address any of the concerns on the efficacy of Pokhran-II.

The two nuclear scientists were reacting to Mr Kakodkar’s remarks in a television interview, where he said the yield of thermonuclear tests was verified, not by one method but several methods. The former AEC chief claimed the thermonuclear test, the fission test and the sub-kilotonne test all worked as designed.

He further said it would not be correct to say Mr Santhanam knew everything, as DRDO scientists had provided only “logistic support” to the nuclear test. “So to assume that Dr Santhanam knew everything is not true,” Mr Kakodkar said.

But Mr Santhanam has countered this by saying there were “several inaccuracies” in Mr Kakodkar’s statement. He said DRDO was a major partner in the 1998 tests and was not just providing logistic support. “That is very far away from the truth,” Mr Santhanam said on Mr Kakodkar’s claims.

The DRDO scientist, who was among the key scientists associated with Pokhran-II, had earlier called the May 11, 1998, tests a ‘fizzle’.