NSA barking up wrong tree: Santhanam

Terming the remarks by the NSA as "unnecessary", he also demanded that an independent panel probe the success of the Pokhran tests.

Narayanan is "barking up the wrong tree", he said at an interaction with journalists at the Indian Women Press Corp here. Santhanam also sought to counter claims by Narayanan and others in the establishment that he was not privy to the test measurements and information on Pokhran-II tests.

The former DRDO scientist had last month questioned the the efficacy of the thermonuclear device during the Pokhran-II tests. He had described the May 11, 1998 tests as a 'fizzle' (failure to achieve expected yield) and said India needed to conduct more tests besides not signing CTBT.

Narayanan has termed Santhanam's claims about Pokhran-II as "horrific" and asserted that India has thermonuclear capabilities which have been verified by a peer group of researchers.