Kalam saved cattle at nuclear test site

New Delhi, July 24 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam, who was head of the Defence Research and Development Orgnisation (DRDO) during the Pokhran-II nuclear explosions, saved a group of straying cattle at the test site, says a book by former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.

According to Mr Singh, one of the principles of the decision-making that went into India's first nuclear tests since 1974, Dr Kalam and other top scientists were concerned about the safety of wandering cattle straying too near the test bore.

Dr Kalam and the other scientists, who were in military uniforms with ranks of colonel and below, were at the test site when the presence of cattle was noticed.

''For the team at the test site - which included A P J Abdul Kalam, then the head of the DRDO and today India's president - possible death or injury to cattle was not just acceptable,'' says Mr Singh in his just-released book 'A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India'.

''A test to ascertain India's scientific and hi-tech capability would ordinarily not accord too much importance to the safety of cattle, but this team of scientists did,'' he writes.

The underground tests slated for around 0830 hrs on May 11, 1998 had to be postponed several times because the wind direction was not suitable, an important precaution as just about 5 km east of the test site was an inhabited village, recalls Mr Singh.

Mr Singh says the five Pokhran-II explosions in 1998 - three on May 11 and two more on May 13 - could have taken place at least three weeks before, just a month after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won a trust vote in the Lok Sabha on March 28.

He says a few days after winning the vote of confidence, Mr Vajpayee met the country's top scientists and sought their views about the possible timing for the tests.

The scientists were Dr Kalam, who then headed the DRDO, and Dr R Chidambaram, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr Kalam told the Prime Minister that the scientists were ready and Mr Vajpayee gave the go-ahead, assigning the task of coordination to his Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra.

Problems about the timing arose just then. '' President K R Narayanan was scheduled to tour Latin America from April 26 to May 10,'' says Mr Singh.

The government thought it would cause embarrassment to the President if he comes to know about the nuclear tests while touring another country.

''As he was not part of the decision-making process, it would have been improper to have the President surprised by such tests, particularly when abroad,'' says Mr Singh.

There was, however, another problem. ''But advancing the test dates to before April 26 would not work for a compelling domestic reason: that period being 'auspicious' for weddings was likely to keep some of the principals away!'' he writes.

Dr Kalam and Dr Chidambaram then shared with Mr Vajpayee the feasibility of May 11 as the earliest practical date.

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