You made me a Modi admirer: Nambinarayanan

S. Nambinarayanan (71), former senior scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is back in the news. The BJP has demanded prosecution of R.B. Sreekumar and other officers in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) who were involved in the investigation of the two-decade-old ISRO Espionage Case in which Nambinarayanan was a key accused.

BJP's national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi's demand followed Nambinarayanan's meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi when the latter visited Thiruvananthapuram on September 26.

The ISRO case was registered by Kerala Police in 1994 against Nambinarayanan and D. Sasikumaran, another ISRO scientist, along with a couple of businessmen and also two Maldivian women who were all accused of collectively siphoning off top documents from ISRO. In 1996, the CBI found the case baseless and recommended departmental action against the IB and SIT officials, who had investigated the case which remain unimplemented as yet. Nambinarayanan had spent 50 days in jail in connection with the case when he said he was subjected to extreme mental and physical torture by IB and Kerala Police officials.

BJP raked up the case 20 years after to allegedly target Sreekumar who was the Deputy Director of the IB team which had assisted SIT in the ISRO case probe. Sreekumar, a 1971 batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer, later served as Additional DGP (Intelligence) in Gujarat in 2002, when the post-Godhra riots had taken place. Sreekumar was the first IPS officer from Gujarat to come out openly charging Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of culpability in the riots.

Sitting at his modest house Sangeetha in Thiruvananthapuram, Nambinarayanan speaks about how the two-decade-old ISRO case has sprang back into focus. Though he remains angry and sad that his tormentors have remained unpunished even after many years, he says this is a time when he is proud and happy about something: ISRO's successful start in its unmanned Mars Orbiter Mission. Apart from seeing this as the success of the organisation where he worked for 3 decades, Nambinarayanan, an architect of Vikas, India's first liquid fuel rocket engine, has a personal reason too for being proud. His son-in-law Subbaiah Arunan is the Mars Mission's Project Director.

Q: Does BJP have your support to rake up the ISRO case now?

A: I have no connection with any political party including the BJP. I have been for the past 15 years fighting for justice. I need compensation for my mental and physical agony as well as destruction of my career and reputation. I also will not rest until those who are responsible for all this are punished. But even after all these years, I have received precious little. Even after National Human Rights Commission granted me an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakhs a decade ago, the successive state governments led by both the Congress and the CPI(M) tried their best to deny me that. It is only recently I received this amount after a prolonged legal battle. No party has so far come to my aid or to even ask me what happened. If BJP does it now, why should I object?

Q: But the issue was raised after your meeting with Narendra Modi.

A: The BJP might have raised it after that. But have I been fighting for this since 1999?

Q: But your meeting with Modi has lent your cause a political dimension.

A: Why? I have been running around with my complaints for so long. Kerala has seen 5 chief ministers during this period. None of them thought it worthwhile even to call me and ask what was I crying for. It was in these circumstances that the chief minister of another state called me and sympathetically heard what I wanted to say. I felt so relieved and am thankful to Modi. In fact I have become his ardent admirer for having cared for an ordinary citizen like me.

Q: But wasn't Modi's objective to target his tormenter R B Sreekumar?

A: That is their lookout. Why should I bother? They have all the rights to use it politically. My only demand is to get my persecutors punished. I welcome whoever comes forward to help me in my life's present mission.

Q: But Sreekumar asked why he alone was targeted while he was only Number 2 in the IB team.

A: Who said I am targeting him only? I have filed cases against all the officers in Kerala Police and IB who harassed me. If BJP is targeting Sreekumar only, that is their business. I also have been fighting to get the Kerala Police team headed by Siby Mathew, DIG prosecuted but governments of both the Congress and CPI(M)refused to do it. Mathew misled all the chief ministers from taking any action against them. The last Left Democratic Front government made him State Information Commissioner after retirement and the present United Democratic Front government allowed him in the post. The present Oommen Chandy government has closed all files against the Kerala Police team.

Q: But Sreekumar said he never met you, let alone torture you.

A: If he never met me, how did he say that he had initiated proceedings against my corruption while he was CISF chief in ISRO? In fact the story about corruption charges is a lie. If I was corrupt and there were vigilance inquiry against me, how could I be one of the very few in ISRO to receive a record 8 promotions in 25 years ? How was I entrusted with highly sensitive and important positions ? He has not tortured me. But as the number two of the IB team, isn't he answerable to the torture, his subordinates perpetrated on me ? He also said that IB had no right to interrogate and hence never did it. Then why he admitted that he interrogated Sasikumaran and the Maldivian women?

Q: Why do you call the case was inspired by CIA?

A: There is enough evidence. Right from the beginning USA was out to thwart ISRO's attempts to get the highly sophisticated Cryogenic engine to be used for advanced GSLV satellites. First they refused to give us and then when the Soviets came forward, they thwarted it. I and Sasikumaran were directly involved in getting the stage from the USSR. It was almost when we clinched the deal with the Soviets and that too at rock bottom prices, the case broke out targeting me and Sasi. In fact the Russians had transferred instruments and equipments of cryogenic technology from Moscow to Delhi in covert Ural Airlines flights. I was in that flight. It was exactly at that time we were arrested for spying against India ! Many international journalists like Brian Harvey have investigated and wrote a book on this. The Kerala Police and IB chiefs were willing tools in CIA's hands. Don't forget that it was just after this case broke out that the then IB's Additional Director Rattan Sehgal was given compulsory retirement after he got charged with spying for USA. No doubt the CIA succeeded through this case to thwart India's indigenous development of Cryogenic engine. For even after two decades we have not been able to do this.

Q: How did your meeting with Modi happen?

A: I had only known from the media that he was coming to attend Mata Amritanandamayi's 60th birth day celebrations. But on September 26 morning I got a phone call from someone who said he was Modi's secretary. He asked me if I could meet Modi at Mascot hotel where he lived, by 9 pm. I said yes and went to the hotel at 9. After elaborate security check, I was ushered into Modi's room. He politely asked me about the ISRO case and its connections with CIA. Our meeting lasted barely 10 minutes. He did not even once ask me about Sreekumar though I hoped he would.