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Comment by sachdevap | Hacker News Reader

The Indian nuclear program has a long history of being thwarted by intelligence agencies. Not unexpected, considering the ramifications of nuclear military power.

In the past, it was the scientists of the program who were targeted, and were killed mysteriously. [0]

[0] https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/qbepmd/why-are-indian-aut...

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Not just the nuclear program. The space programme at ISRO has also been constantly been threatened by foreign powers, often acting with political powers in India. The case of Nambi Narayanan is by far the most infamous, where the Kerala State Govt. was actively conspiring (with what circumstantially, and in Nambi's opinion, appears to be US) against Indian state interests. Imagine the furore that would be caused if Texas were conspiring with the USSR to overthrow the republic, but of course, in India, the media remains mum for reasons unknown.

This shouldn't be surprising - Mitrokhin notes how Indian ministers were falling over themselves to inform KGB/CIA for financial gain, and how Indira Gandhi herself was on KGB payroll. The media (nor the elite) is very different, as many recent scandals have shown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nambi_Narayanan

https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-kgb-papers-it-see...

> The case of Nambi Narayanan is by far the most infamous, where the Kerala State Govt. was actively conspiring (with what circumstantially, and in Nambi's opinion, appears to be US) against Indian state interests.

That is a strange claim. Why say State Govt, and subsequent analogy with Texas? Few government officials and a prominent media house seem to have trapped Nambi.

It is well known the Indian communists have supported China over India in many instances. It is really weird considering China is not communist at least in economics any more.

> China is not communist at least in economics any more.

This depends on your interpretation. It could be argued that China's state capitalism -- where the state is the dominant capitalist, and owns most of the companies, property, and natural resources, is a form of communism, perhaps the most effective realisation of communism seen so far.

True private ownership is very limited, as property rights are subordinate to the will of the state. Land can not be owned as freehold, and is instead leased from the state.

Father of Indian nuclear industry and arguably Indian Science Homi Bhabha was killed by the CIA long time back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homi_J._Bhabha#Assassination_t...

Although US is not a modern adversary this is an interesting piece of history. India had the world's most advanced thorium research once upon a time.

He was claimed to have been killed by the CIA. It's entirely possible that they were not involved.

Doesn't take away the fact that the government seems woefully ill-equipped technology esp to tackle cyber security threats? Defence might qualify too sensitive to adopt tech from US, Israeli, Chinese, or Russian tech? Is the local talent up to the task incl working on/for government projects?

Ill equipped is the wrong word. Not equipped might be right. I did contract work for few of the largest Indian governmental organizations and unfortunately nepotism and security leaks are rampant. Pretty sure that nuclear plants have strict security but it's usually overridden by a higher up boss.

Paradoxically, it was worse for the Australian semi-government organization I worked for. I was a contractor and had access to almost everything.

Not that larger US governmental organizations are impeccable. This is one of the reason governments can't be trusted with backdoors. They will invariably lose it without anyone noticing it.

You have any evidence that US, Israel, China or Russia are in a better shape?

I don't, but those are traditional Defence partners India buys from and collaborates with. China, not so much, anymore.

That really is bizarre - that sort of assasination program is a direct threat to India's future defence capability. Why would the military not have been quickly involved in something like that?

With whom? They don't have enough soft power to do much here. Their primary opponent is also nuclear armed.

They surely were also engaged in similar programs in Pakistan.

If you are so certain, could you share some links to the said similar programs.

Source? India isn’t a terrorist state

India's supported and does support BLA, TTP and LTTE.

India used to support LTTE a long time back(during Indira Gandhi's tenure). Rajiv Gandhi reversed all that. By 2009, India was actually proactively helping the Sri Lankan government to take down LTTE.

While India probably still supports BLA, there is no credible source that points towards India's support of TTP.

> While India probably still supports BLA, there is no credible source that points towards India's support of TTP.

Latif Mehsud, the chief spokesman of the group, admitted that they had received support from both Afghanistan and India.

And whatever Latif Mehsud says is credible?

Is that why the LTTE killed the Indian Prime Minister?

I don't know why a terrorist group did anything but based on the source below, RAW, the Indian Spy Agency actively trained and provided arms to LTTE and various other terrorist groups.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/970119/plus4.html

Is Pakistan?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_and_state-sponsored_t...

I mean it would be naive to argue otherwise.It is one of the primary instruments of control used by a mostly military ruled state over most of its history.

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