Sethna slams APJ, wants more n-tests

New Delhi, Sept. 1: Homi Sethna, a former top atomic boss, on Tuesday waded into the 1998 Pokhran row when he backed ex-DRDO scientist K. Santhanam’s assessment that the nuclear test was not a full success and slammed former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for rubbishing the claim.
“I fully support Santhanam and I stand by his statement that India needs more nuke tests to be conducted,” Sethna, the guiding force behind India’s first nuclear test in 1974, said.
Kalam, was heading the Defence Research and Development Organisation at the time of the 1998 nuclear tests when Santhanam was coordinating Pokhran-II. Sethna, now in his eighties, suggested that Kalam was not a qualified authority to rubbish his former colleague’s claim.
Simultaneously, another former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) P.K. Iyengar alleged that the 1998 tests were done in haste at the bidding of the then government. A BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee had just assumed office when India conducted the tests.
The comments by Sethna, who was the AEC chairman in 1974 came notwithstanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Kalam setting at rest the controversy over the 1998 nuclear tests.
Kalam said the only thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb) tested produced the “desired yield”.
But Sethna said “Kalam is not a scientist and Santhanam is a physicist and he knows what he is talking. What does Kalam understand about physics? He can say anything as he is the President and politician.”
“What Santhanam said was absolutely correct,” Sethna added.
“What did he (Kalam) know about extracting, making explosive grade? He didn’t know a thing. By being President he appears to wear the stature. He relied on atomic energy to gain additional stature,” said Sethna.
“I don’t like politicians to interfere specially lay politicians to interfere any more,” Sethna said.