Ex-ISRO scientists dispute claims made in film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’

This was insulting to ISRO, as well as hundreds of scientists who have been working as a team, one scientist said

A group of former scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that about 90 per cent of the claims, made about Nambi Narayanan’s contributions to the space industry, in the film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ were untrue.

The group of scientists, including former director of ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, A E Muthunayagam said that Narayanan, who was exonerated of all espionage charges, had been misleading about his contributions to ISRO’s key achievements through, not just the film, but a series of interviews over the last few years as well.

This was insulting to ISRO, as well as hundreds of scientists who have been working as a team, Muthunayagam said.

According to the scientists, who were at a meet-the-press event at Thiruvananthapuram Press Club on Wednesday, contributions to the country’s space research sector could not be the reason to confer Narayanan with Padma Bhushan in 2019.

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Narayanan himself had once told Muthunayagam that he got the Padma award because of his connections in the national capital, the former LPSC director said.

Muthunayagam also said that although Narayanan often claimed that he was severely tortured by the police while in custody during the espionage case in 1994, another ISRO scientist D Sasikumaran, who was also an accused in the case, said that he was in custody for nearly 12 days but didn’t suffer any physical torture, but only faced humiliations. Sasikumaran had said that Narayanan was in police custody only for three days.

The recently released film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’, starring R Madhavan, was widely hailed by eminent personalities, and projected Narayanan as the one who made key contributions in developing cryogenic technology.

However, the former ISRO scientist hoped that the makers of the film would become aware in due time that the story presented in the film was misleading one.

According to Muthunayagam, Narayanan worked under him for about 95 per cent of his career and was good at management and administration but not in system development.

Narayanan had claimed that he played a key role in developing the cryogenic propulsion system, but the fact was that significant development in cryogenic propulsion system took place after Narayanan left the LPSC following the spy case, Muthunayagam said.

He also revealed that Narayanan never had any independent responsibility in the development of liquid propulsion systems. Many such claims by Narayanan were not factual, he said.

The former LPSC director however was reluctant to discuss the espionage charges. Muthunayagam said there were unanswered questions about the 1994 case. The alleged espionage was that of cryogenic technology which was not even developed at the time.

Yet, the then ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan took actions against Narayanan and Sasikumaran, he lamented.