R. Madhavan, who has proved his mettle in Hindi films like ‘Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein’, ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘3 Idiots’, ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ has now started his new innings as a director with the film Rocketry. The film “Rocketry: The Nambi Effect” made under his direction has been released and cinema lovers are also very much liked.
The film is a biopic of aerospace engineer Nambi Narayanan, a former scientist of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), who was implicated on false charges of betraying the country. The story of Nambi Narayanan should be known to every citizen of the country so that they can understand how an innocent patriot is declared a traitor to the country by being implicated in a political conspiracy.
The conspiracy of ISRO espionage scandal was hatched in the year 1994
First, in October 1994, a Maldivian woman Mariam Rashida was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram. Rashida was arrested for selling the drawings of ISRO’s indigenous cryogenic engine to Pakistan. After this, the Kerala Police arrested Nambi Narayanan, ISRO’s top scientist and director of the cryogenic engine project, in the year 1994 in Thiruvananthapuram, along with two other scientists D Sasikumaran and deputy director K Chandrasekhar.
Apart from this, an Indian representative of the Russian Space Agency, SK Sharma, labor contractor and Rashida’s friend Fauzia Hassan were also arrested. All of them were accused of selling intelligence related to ISRO’s indigenous cryogenic rocket engine to other countries including Pakistan. Intelligence Bureau officials then started questioning Nambi Narayanan, the director of the Cryogenic Engine Project. He denied these allegations and called it a conspiracy against himself.
Nambi Narayan declared traitor without evidence
Then this matter remained in the headlines of the newspapers. Relying on the theory of the police without investigation, the media also left no stone unturned in calling Nambi Narayanan a traitor to the country. At the time of his arrest, Nambi Narayanan was very close to making the indigenous cryogenic engine to be used in the rocket. The charges against him and his arrest pushed the country’s rocket and cryogenic engine program back several decades.
In December 1994, the investigation of the case was handed over to the CBI. The CBI in its investigation did not find the allegations of Intelligence Bureau and Kerala Police to be true.
April 1996: The CBI in a report filed in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court states that the entire case is bogus and there is no evidence to support the allegations leveled.
CBI finds Nambi Narayanan innocent in its investigation
The CBI investigation revealed that Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case with the intention of damaging India’s space program. The investigation indicated that at the behest of the American intelligence agency CIA, the then Communist government of Kerala made Nambi Narayanan a victim of conspiracy. All this exercise was being done with the intention of destroying India’s space program. This was the period when India was dependent on other countries including America for its space program. Space technology used to be imported from these countries on rent for crores and billions of rupees.
America was afraid of business losses due to India’s self-reliance in space technology. The SIT officer CB Mathews, who had investigated Nambi, was later made the state’s DGP by the Communist government of Kerala. In the CBI investigation, apart from CB Mathews, then SP KK Joshua and S Vijayan were also involved in this conspiracy. It is believed that the US intelligence agency CIA has arrested big leaders and officers involved in the then Communist government of Kerala for this. Big money was provided. Actually, these people were not betraying the country, not Nambi Narayanan.
May 1996: The court accepted the report of the CBI and released all the accused arrested in this case.
May 1998: After this the then CPM government of Kerala ordered a re-investigation of the case. The Supreme Court set aside the order of the Kerala government to re-investigate the matter.
Year 1999: Nambi Narayanan filed a petition in the court for compensation. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission ordered the Kerala government to compensate him, but the state government challenged the order.
April 2017: Supreme Court begins hearing on Nambi Narayanan’s plea on police officers who wrongly implicated the scientist in the case. Narayanan moved the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court’s order that no action was required against the former DGP and two retired superintendents of police, KK Joshua and S Vijayan.
Charged free in the year 1996, fought for honor for 24 years
Although Nambi Narayanan was acquitted in 1996 itself, he continued to fight for his honor and after 24 years, the Supreme Court on 14 September 2018 ordered to restore his honor by removing all the negative records against him. A three-judge bench headed by the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud, ordered the Kerala government to pay Nambi Narayanan all his dues, compensation and other benefits.
The Supreme Court in its order said that the Kerala government will give compensation to Nambi Narayanan along with the arrears and other benefits. It will be recovered from the police officers who implicated him in the false case of espionage. Also ordered removal of adverse remarks recorded against Nambi Narayanan in all government documents. The Supreme Court said that the loss caused to Nambi Narayanan cannot be compensated with money, but Rs 75 lakh should be paid to him as per the rules. Nambi Narayanan was present there when the Supreme Court was delivering this verdict.
If there was no conspiracy against Nambi, ISRO would have been 15 years ahead
It is believed that had there not been a conspiracy against Nambi Narayanan, India would have made indigenous cryogenic engines 15 years ago. At that time, India wanted to get cryogenic engine technology. America flatly refused to give it. There was an attempt to negotiate with Russia, the talks were in the final stage, but under the pressure of America, Russia backed down.
Then Nambi Narayanan had assured the Government of India that he would show him the indigenous cryogenic engine with his team. He was taking his mission in the right direction when a conspiracy was hatched against him at the behest of America. Nambi Narayanan has also written a book on the conspiracy with him titled ‘Ready to Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case’ (Ready to Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case).
Modi government honored Nambi Narayan with Padma Bhushan
No political party, except the BJP, ever raised its voice against the conspiracy with this great scientist of the country. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi has been speaking openly in support of Nambi Narayanan in this matter for a long time. He had exposed all the aspects of this conspiracy by holding a press conference in 2013. In the year 2019, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in the BJP government. Nambi Narayanan had said, “I am very happy to be awarded the Padma Bhushan. Everyone is accepting me. First the Supreme Court declared me innocent. Then the Kerala government came to me and now the Center has also accepted me.
Translated from Zee News Hindi
