In whose defence?

The parliamentary standing committee on defence 8212; as just reported in this newspaper 8212; has called for an 8216;independent and external8217; audit of the performance of the Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO and the committee8217;s recommendations will be tabled in the budget session. This should be the first step towards demanding full accountability from the government8217;s science establishments. For far too long, sarkari science has got unquestioning support from Parliament on spending public money, without any reciprocal obligations on delivery. This is particularly true of the DRDO and the Department of Atomic Energy DAE, whose work is so intimately linked to national security. Wrapping the national flag round themselves, the two departments have come to believe that they are above public scrutiny.

In a series of reports over the last few weeks, this newspaper has drawn public attention to the extraordinary delays and cost overruns in the implementation of various DRDO projects. That the standing committee has decided to act against the wishes of both the DRDO and the ministry of defence, suggests that Parliament is finally reclaiming its responsibility for oversight. It also underlines the importance of government agencies being accountable to the country.

The government must now also prepare a thorough audit of the DAE. Many questions have gone a-begging on the nuclear weapons programme run by the DAE. A former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr P.K. Iyengar, had publicly challenged the veracity of the DAE8217;s claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test in May 1998. There are questions why the DAE has not extracted high value plutonium from unsafeguarded spent fuel that has been lying around for years. Nor is it clear why the DAE has not conducted sub-critical nuclear tests, despite claiming the capacity to do so. This newspaper fully appreciates that some of these questions, which have a huge bearing on national security, can only be addressed in camera. Nevertheless the government must get to the bottom of these issues and reassure Parliament that national security is not being jeopardised because of the inefficiency of its science departments.