Global Watch | Mysterious deaths, fake cases: Lessons to be learnt from past in protecting Indian scientists

As India rejoices over the success of its Chandrayaan-3 Mission, thanks to the efforts of our scientific community backed by a strong-willed leadership, it is important to know that this might have increased the threat perception for our successful scientists. The efforts to scuttle India’s space and atomic energy programmes have not been new. Several of our scientists have died unnatural and mysterious deaths over the years. And was all this coincidental? In this regard, the mysterious deaths of Vikram Sarabhai, father of India’s space programme and Homi Jehangir Bhabha, father of India’s nuclear energy programme as well as the fake implication of the man behind ‘Vikas engine’ S Nambi Narayanan need to be remembered to learn our lessons. Bhabha died in a plane crash on 24 January, 1966 when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc in January 1966. The crash was planned and executed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) if one goes by what Robert Trumbull Crowley, a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, told journalist Gregory Douglas. These conversations, which took place over the telephone, were reproduced in ‘Conversations with the Crow’. Crowley was known as ‘The Crow’ in the CIA circuit. The excerpts from this conversation are worth revisiting. This conversation took place on 8 July, 1996 that was recorded by Douglas: Robert Trumbull Crowley(RTC):  We had trouble, you know, with India back in the 60s when they got uppity and started work on an atomic bomb. Loud mouthed cow-lovers bragging about how clever they were and how they, too, were going to be a great power in the world. The thing is, they were getting into bed with the Russians. Of course, Pakistan was in bed with the chinks, so India had to find another bed partner. And we did not want them to have any kind of nuclear weaponry because God knows what they would have done with it. Probably strut their stuff like a Washington nigger with a brass watch. Probably nuke the Pakis. They‘re all a bunch of neo-coons anyway. Oh, yes, and their head expert was fully capable of building a bomb and we knew just what he was up to. He was warned several times but what an arrogant prick that one was. Told our people to fuck off and then made it clear that no one would stop him and India from getting nuclear parity with the big boys. Loudmouths bring it all down on themselves. Do you know about any of this? Gregory Douglas (GD): Not my area of interest or expertise. Who is this joker, anyway? RTC: Was, Gregory, let’s use the past tense, if you please. Name was Homi Bhabha. That one was dangerous, believe me. He had an unfortunate accident. He was flying to Vienna to stir up more trouble, when his 707 had a bomb go off in the cargo hold and they all came down on a high mountain way up in the Alps. No real evidence and the world was much safer. GD: Was Ali emBaba(he was actually referring to Homi Bhabha) alone on the plane? RTC: No, it was a commercial Air India flight. GD: How many people went down with him? RTC: Ah, who knows and frankly, who cares? GD: I suppose if I had a relative on the flight I would care. RTC: Did you? GD: No. RTC: Then don ‘t worry about it. We could have blown it up over Vienna but we decided the high mountains were much better for the bits and pieces to come down on. I think a possible death or two among mountain goats is much preferable than bringing down a huge plane right over a big city. GD: I think that there were more than goats, Robert. RTC: Well, aren’t we being a bleeding-heart today? GD: Now, now, it’s not an observation that is unexpected. Why not send him a box of poisoned candy? Shoot him in the street? Blow up his car? I mean, why ace a whole plane full of people? RTC: Well, I call it as I see it. At the time, it was our best shot. And we nailed (Lal Bahadur) Shastri as well. Another cow-loving raghead. Gregory, you say you don’t know about these people. Believe me, they were close to getting a bomb and so what if they nuked their deadly Paki enemies? So what? Too many people in both countries. Breed like rabbits and full of snake-worshipping twits. I don’t for the life of me see what the Brits wanted in India. And then threaten us? They were in the sack with the Russians, I told you. Maybe they could nuke the Panama Canal or Los Angeles. We don’t know that for sure, but it is not impossible. GD: Who was Shastri? RTC: A political type who started the programme in the first place. Bhabha was a genius and he could get things done, so we aced both of them. And we let certain people there know that there was more where that came from. We should have hit the chinks, too, while we were at it, but they were a tougher target. ….India was quieter after Bhabha croaked. GD: Were all the passengers Indian atomic scientists? RTC: Who cares, Gregory? We got the main man and that was all that mattered. The above conversation shows to what extent some agencies can go to hurt Indian scientists. Another case study is that of ISRO scientist Nambi Narayan. He and several other scientists were arrested in a fake espionage case in 1994. That was the time when India was at the cusp of making it big in the commercial launch of satellites at a fraction of the cost that American space agency NASA was charging. After being absolved by the Supreme Court of India honourably from this case and compensated by National Human Rights Commission, the father of India’s Cryogenic technology and a handpicked disciple of Sarabhai, S Nambi Narayanan wrote in his autobiographical account Ready To Fire: How India and I survived the ISRO spy case, “The ISRO spy case was able to delay India’s cryogenic engine by at least 15 years. What does one gain from that? For one, a lot of money. India today offers to launch a satellite at a fraction of the price that NASA charges. A 2015 report of the Colorado-based Space Foundation pegged the global space economy of 2014 at $330 billion, with a 9% growth over the previous year. Satellite launches and related commercial activities constitute 75% of it.It is in public domain how the US applied sanctions on India and Russia in 1992, a year after the two countries signed a contract for transfer of cryogenic technology. Piece together the timing of the ISRO spy case and a few later incidents..and you see the plot.” A similar mystery shrouds the death of Sarabhai, who was found dead on 30 December 30, 1971, at a resort in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). He was 52 years old at the time of the death and had no health complications. Narayanan, who worked under Sarabhai and was handpicked by him to work on several key aspects of India’s space programme writes in his autobiography, “Theories abounded about Sarabhai’s death, and I found it only natural for people to talk of such an unnatural death. A 52-year-old man of many virtues and virtually no vice, dropping dead on his bed after a perfectly happy night in a hotel room. I knew Sarabhai never smoked or drank. ..He was health conscious and went on regular morning walks. And without a postmortem done on his body, the cause of his death would remain disputable, if not unknown.” Sarabhai held the distinction of having the post of chairman for both India’s space as well as nuclear energy programme and his death was a significant setback for both the programmes. The fact remains that several Indian scientists working in key strategic programmes have died unnatural deaths. Different sources have given different numbers. There might be some difference of opinion over the number of such deaths but one thing is clear amidst the heaps of praise showered on the Indian scientific community, they also remain prime targets of anti-India forces. We must accord the highest priority to their safety and security and investigate every such unnatural death with utmost tenacity and not spare the guilty. The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.