Uncovering the ISRO Spy Case: J Rajasekharan Nair on Truth, Power and Classified
Rajkumari Sharma Tankha
Winner of KK Birla Foundation Fellowship in Journalism, J Rajasekharan Nair worked as the Kerala correspondent with MAGNA publications for 14 years, working for Society, Savvy, Interiors, and Stardust.
His recently release book Classified: Hidden Truths in the ISRO Spy Story (Srishti Publishers) unravels how the state agencies are surreptitiously trying to bury the wreckage of a failed operation masterminded by ISRO to illegally transfer cryogenic rocket technology from Russia to India.
The author digs deeper into why S Nambi Narayanan, wrongfully projected as the target and victim of the spy case, doesn’t want the complete truth behind the incident to surface, and why he attempts to air a counter – narrative using lies and contrived truths. Nair tells us more about the making of the book:
When did the idea to pen this book come to you?
Sometime in May 2021, Dipti Patel, my literary agent, asked me about the possibility of republishing Spies From Space: The ISRO Frame-Up (published in 1998). I mooted the idea of writing its sequel.
Why did you want to write this book?
I wrote Classified to expose how state agencies—including the Supreme Court, CBI, IB, and the government—attempted to bury the truth behind a failed covert operation involving cryogenic technology. Instead, they promoted a distorted narrative, reducing the espionage case to just the arrest of S. Nambi Narayanan while ignoring its larger international dimensions and other accused individuals.
I was also concerned by how the media echoed official versions without scrutiny. Through documented evidence, I aimed to present a factual counter-narrative and reveal the fragility and lack of accountability within key institutions like the IB and CBI.
When the subject is as sensitive as the one in Classified, how challenging is it to gather facts?
It was not that difficult. I am a journalist who writes my reports based on documents or interviews. This is the training I got from MAGNA. In the case of ISRO espionage case, I have all the documents with me right from the confidential letter written by the then Commissioner of police of Trivandrum to the DGP; the letter that led to the arrest of Mariam Rasheeda, a Maldivian woman, on the charge of overstay.
I have read all the judgments in this case right from the CJM order in 1996 to the Supreme Court judgment in 2018. Besides, I got different aspects of the issue from all the accused since I had interviewed all of them and Raman Srivastava IPS.
If you are ready to read and understand the available documents in this case, you will get a different picture than what the media had reported and what the State agencies are presenting as the truth.
Besides, I got certain crucial documents accidentally. K. Chandrasekhar, one of the accused in the spy case, gave me photocopies of some telex messages between KELTEC and Glavkosmos to prove his credentials as the authorised agent of Glavkosmos.
Some of these telex messages gave me a hint that there was an attempt for a clandestine operation between Glavkosmos and ISRO to transfer cryogenic rocket technology from Glavkosmos to ISRO outwitting the provisions of the amended MTCR.
It was a big breakthrough that helped me to focus on the illegal and clandestine operations between Glavkosmos and ISRO that led to the CIA fabricating an absurd spy story.
Certain reports in The Christian Science Monitor and reports of discussion at the Russian Duma (parliament) gave me a better perception of the failed operation.
How is Classified different from your earlier works?
My Earlier work was a fiction, All Lies, Says Krishna, an absolute deconstruction of the Mahabharata in which the central character is Sakuni, a pious man who evolves into the personification of revenge and in whom revenge becomes the spiritual expression of his love towards his father.
Again, the narrative portrays Krishna not as the Lord but as an ordinary man who returns to his old love Radha toward the fag end of his life, and their dialogues retell the story of the Mahabharata. In a sense, both the fiction and Classified present stories that differ from the commonly perceived versions.
Any forthcoming project?
My next fiction is titled Love in the Times of Madness which is about the life of an F2M transgender and his life in an NGO.
Besides, portraying the life of the transgender, personally known to me, the book exposes the ugly games the social activists play under the cover of NGOs.
The book tells that behind every crime, there is an urge for solace and that we are the pains of our parents born in us before we are born.
