The Cirrus office in Bangalore. Picture by Keshav Vitla

Washington, April 8: After touting their friendship for almost seven years from every pillar and post, India and the US appear to be entering choppy waters in steering their bilateral relations.

An indictment here last week of four Indians accused of illegally procuring American technology for the navigation and weapons guidance systems of Tejas military aircraft is a potential minefield in Indo-US relations for what it has left unsaid.

The indictment has neither identified nor charged a number of “co-conspirators” who allegedly violated America’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act.

They have not been identified because these “co-conspirators” enjoy diplomatic immunity and cannot be charged unless the US is prepared to risk a big rupture in relations with India.

Although he has not been named in the indictment, it is an open secret in Washington that one of the “co-conspirators” who is integral to this story is a senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). This official was counsellor for Isro in the Indian embassy in Washington during much of the time when the alleged illegal transfer of US equipment to India took place.

He played a key role in turning around Indo-US cooperation in space to the point where space became an important symbol of the blossoming friendship between Washington and New Delhi. But his time here was also one when Isro, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), indeed, every unit in India working on space technology, was under American sanctions.

Also under a cloud is a former counsellor for defence technology at the Indian embassy here. He belongs to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

According to the indictment that was made public by the US department of justice, Cirrus Electronics, a company with offices in South Carolina, Singapore and India, procured equipment for use in Indian missiles and other weapon systems without revealing to US manufacturers that these were for organisations, which were on the US “entities list”. Special export licences are required before US manufacturers can export to companies and organisations on the “entities list”.

Cirrus Electronics was founded by a person of Indian origin, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, who has now been charged in the case.

The equipment exported to VSSC was mainly Static Random Access Memory chips used in missile guided systems that are meant to withstand extreme temperature.

Bharat Dynamics Ltd, whose mission is to achieve core competency for India in missile and torpedo design and production, bought capacitors, semi-conductors, rectifiers and resistors for missile guidance and firing systems in violation of US laws, it was alleged.

Aeronautical Development Establishment, which is part of the DRDO, got navigation and weapons guidance systems which are vital to the Tejas Light Combat aircraft, according to the indictment.

If the charges in this case are proved in court, it would mean that the Indian embassy here — in particular the Isro and DRDO officials posted in the mission at that time — issued end-user certificates concealing the fact that the restricted exports were for Indian companies linked to the ministry of defence and the department of space.