Nuke leak from former PM'S (RAO) OFFICE

Mr Prime Minister, with the names out in public, act now
Tuesday August 1 2006 16:27 IST

An Issue of high national security implications is being trivialised by a quarrel through letters between the two Singhs – Manmohan Singh and Jaswant Singh.

That there has been a leak of Indian nuclear secrets to the US is in itself a charge serious enough for investigation. Instead the two leaders now quarrel through the media, like urchins in streets, over naming the ‘moles’ in public.

When the fact of the leak seems almost undeniable and the identity of the suspects of 1995 makes their names clear – like who the Gujarat Governor was in 1995 and who the then scientific advisor to the government was – where is the need to ask for their names in public?

If someone complains of theft and also gives the identity of the thief to the police, can the police ask the complainant for the name the thief!

See the sequence of this trivialisation. Jaswant’s new book has claimed that in 1995 some official in Narasimha Rao’s PMO was passing on information to the US about Rao contemplating a nuclear test by India. The media had leaked the mole charge before the book release. The Prime Minister, uncharacteristic of him, challenged Jaswant to name the mole in public. It is uncharacteristic of him because he never challenges anyone – yes, even if it were terrorists – with the result no one challenges him at all! But he has made Jaswant an exception.

Why? Because, obviously, his advisors felt that making Jaswant’s mole an issue provided an escape from real issues, like security lapses that led to the Mumbai blasts and how shamelessly his party had, in the past, defended SIMI which, the Manmohan Government itself now says, is involved in the mass slaughter in Mumbai.

Finally this entertaining public spat between the two Singhs has been turned into a benefit performance for Sonia’s party.

Still, when the PM challenged him, Jaswant should forthwith have named the suspect with whatever evidence he had had. But he hesitated and hesitated till his charge itself began losing shine. Now media reports have it that Jaswant has written to the PM naming the ‘mole’, also mentioning the basis on which he has named the ‘mole’.

But, surprisingly, the PM has responded to him saying that the letter sent by Jaswant in support of his charge is not ‘original’; that Jaswant should name the mole in public; that mole was not in PMO. And so on. The PM knows that photocopy is adequate to start investigation, but still he asks for the original. Thus, the PM has taken the discussion on a serious issue, already trivialised by him, to a new low.

Some nine years ago, this website's newspaper had clearly identified two moles in the Rao Government. Still, when, a few days back, the PM challenged Jaswant and Jaswant seemed to hesitate, this website's newspaper came out with the names of the two suspects. This was last week. Already the description of the two in the documents – that one was the scientific advisor to the government with direct access to the PM and the other the Governor of Gujarat, both having been invited to the Bangalore secret conclave by the PM to decide on whether to have the nuke test or not – had left no one in doubt about their names.

Still as the PM wanted them named in public, and Jaswant hesitated, this paper did its public duty: named them! But the article that appeared in this paper on July 27 did not appear in Delhi where only national issues are made and unmade.

However fortunately, two days later, on July 29, Editor-in-Chief of Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, in his widely read column in the paper in Delhi and in a dozen other centres in North India, mentioned the names of the two suspects under the guise of a comment on the July 27 article in this website's newspaper.

So, last week, the names of the suspects have been put out in public, as the PM had wanted. Still Manmohan keeps insisting that Jaswant should publicly name the suspects in the nuke leak.

But, Mr Prime Minister, what about the names already put out in public? The evidence about the mole cited in the latest issue of ‘India On Monday’ clearly describes the mole as having close access to the PM (read Rao) precisely how this paper had described the mole nine years earlier. Yet is Manmohan insisting that only Jaswant name the suspect in public. Is this an issue between Jaswant and the PM? Not at all, as the legal luminary Ram Jethmalani says.

After the names have been put out in the public domain, it has ceased to be an issue between the PM and Jaswant.

It is now an issue of national security for investigation. The PM cannot escape his duty by carrying on his quarrel with Jaswant. Mr Prime Minister they were identified in 1997, and named last week. Now act