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New Delhi: Nuclear scientist Dr VS Arunachalam, against whom the needle of suspicion of being the mole in the PMO had pointed, today reportedly denied allegations against him. Yesterday, a Hindi TV news channel had reported that former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has identified Arunachalam in his recently released book "A Call to Honour" as the mole who leaked India's nuclear secrets to the US in the early nineties during Narasimha Rao's regime. "I was never in the PMO ... I was the scientific advisor to the Defence Minister from 1982 to 1992, not to the Prime Minister. I will take whatever steps that are necessary to clear my name. I will also file charges for defamation of character and seek reparation to the damage caused to my reputation, and for the violation of privacy," an English news channel quoted Arunachalam as saying today. Arunachalam served five Prime Ministers - including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao - and 10 Defence Ministers in different capacities like Defence Scientific Advisor, and as secretary of the department of Defence Research and Development, in his official assignments at the Centre from 1982 onwards. Prior to these appointments, he worked as a scientist at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and at the National Aeronautical Laboratory (NAL) at Bangalore, before joining the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad, as its director in 1975. Even as the guessing game as to who was the mole in the PMO's continues, Jaswant Singh has confirmed that he has still not revealed the name. However, he has disclosed that the mole in the Narasimha Rao PMO was a civil servant. Jaswant rules out Arunachalam as mole New Delhi: Former Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh today ruled out the name of senior scientist V S Arunachalam as the US 'mole' in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) during the reign of PV Narasimha Rao. Dismissing Arunachalam's name as the spy who leaked India's nuclear secret to the US, Jaswant Singh said that it would be highly irresponsible for anyone to take his name on this issue, as he was one of the highly respected scientists of the country. The name of Arunchalam, who was the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister during that period, as the possible mole made rounds from Tuesday night, when a private television news channel quoted BJP sources that Arunachalam was named by Jaswant Singh as the spy. After Arunachalam's name was cleared by Jaswant Singh, speculations still continue as who could be the US spy as alleged by Singh in his memoir "A call to honour". Jaswant on Wednesday continued to remain tightlipped and did not elaborate more than what he had said on Tuesday that the mole was a civil servant who now does not occupy any important position in the administration. |
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