New Delhi, Oct 19: Missile man and former President APJ Abdul Kalam was dissuaded to test-fire the N-capable surface-to-air Agni missile hours before the test.
A new book Advantage India: From Challenge to Opportunity reveals that the then Cabinet Secretary TN Seshan during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi regime had called up Kalam at night to convey that India was under pressure from US and NATO to delay the launch of Agni-I.
Calling Kalam at 3 am, Seshan said, “We are under tremendous pressure by the US and NATO to delay any
impending missile test. There are strong diplomatic channels at work.’ Then almost immediately he followed again with the first question, ‘Kalam! Where are we on Agni?”
Kalam found the question very difficult to answer and writes in the book, “My mind raced vast distances in the next few seconds. There were intelligence reports of US satellites fixing their gaze on us. I knew the US was putting increasing pressure on the Prime Minister and his office to delay the launch. Worse, there were reports that Chandipur might be struck with very bad weather in the next few days. Then there was my team. Hard working, determined young men and women whom we had handpicked for this assignment about one decade ago. They had seen everything. Technology denials, evictions from other nations, tight budgets, media pressure and the frustration of restarting curtailed projects that had been shut down due to lack of critical apparatus…,” Kalam wrote in the book.
