The future of a missile scientist who is being credited for scripting the “BrahMos success” is uncertain at the moment.

Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the BrahMos Aerospace and one of the chief comptrollers at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is not sure whether he will get an extension to witness the realisation of air force version of the missile, currently  under development.
He turns 60 on Sunday and will retire on July 31 in the normal course. But DRDO has a tradition of granting extension to the deserving candidates and given Dr Pillai’s success with Brahmos, many in DRDO thought that it would not be a problem for him at all.

According to procedure, a person can get an extension if he is recommended by the DRDO director general. After this, the defence minister approves the recommendation. However, the current incumbent, Dr M Natarajan, did not recommend Dr Pillai’s name for the usual two year extension, sources said. 

Subsequently, Defence Minister A K Antony sent a note to Dr Natarajan, asking him why Dr Pillai’s name had not been recommended for the extension despite an excellent track record. Responding to the minister’s query in an unusual manner, Dr Natarajan has constituted a high level committee to decide if Dr Pillai could be given an extension. The panel, with former DRDO chief Dr V K Aatre as one of its members, is likely to meet on Tuesday, sources said.

When Deccan Herald contacted Dr Natarajan, he refused to comment, while Dr Pillai, despite repeated attempts, was not available.

However, another DRDO scientist pointed out that granting extension was a “common practice” when  President A P J Abdul Kalam was heading the DRDO. But his successor, Dr Aatre, was not in favour of granting too many extensions and reportedly refused to accept an extension for himself.

While freshness in leadership and ideas were the reasons for not granting extensions, others pointed out that everything depended on the “importance of a scientist to a specific project” and “the choice of the defence minister” who takes the final call. Mr Antony has received representations from some of the DRDO laboratories, appealing for an extension for Dr Pillai.

While the naval version of BrahMos cruise missile is a success, recently the army version of the missile was handed over to Army Chief Gen J J Singh by President A P J Abdul Kalam.