Something very serious happened inside ISRO.
And Delhi knows far more than Delhi is telling us.
Follow the chronology.
May 18, 2025.
PSLV-C61 lifts off.
EOS-09 is onboard.
Mission lost.
ISRO investigates.
Then comes another blow.
January 12, 2026.
PSLV-C62 lifts off.
EOS-N1 Anvesha is onboard.
Mission lost again.
Two consecutive PSLV failures.
Both around the third stage.
Both carrying strategic importance.
Then Delhi moves.
January 22-23, 2026.
Ajit Doval lands in Thiruvananthapuram.
He goes straight to VSSC.
Closed-door meetings follow.
After Doval returns, the investigation gets bigger.
An external review enters the picture.
Then comes the explosive allegation.
The first failure had been investigated.
Corrective measures were recommended.
But then came the twist.
An unnamed senior ISRO scientist reportedly changed those recommendations.
The scientist?
Reportedly from a state neighbouring Kerala.
And was positioned at VSSC.
Yes.
The same VSSC Ajit Doval visited.
Why alter safety recommendations?
Financial interests?
Institutional manipulation?
Or something much darker?
Then another story erupts.
Scientists start leaving ISRO.
Not five.
Not ten.
More than 100 (upto mid August 2026)
~80 from URSC.
~20 from VSSC.
Even scientists connected to critical national missions.
Gaganyaan included.
The reason that was told to us looked simple.
Private-sector salaries.
Better opportunities.
Career movement.
But then Delhi does something unusual.
July 14, 2026.
Department of Space intervenes.
A memorandum goes out.
Group ‘A’ scientists
on Gaganyaan and critical missions?
Their exits cannot be cleared routinely.
The decision now goes higher.
This wasn't merely attrition.
Delhi was mapping something dangerous.
People.
Access.
Networks.
Decisions.
Money trails.
Foreign contacts.
I call this “Operation Cleanup.”
To be clear: There is no public evidence that these 100+ scientists were purged.
But the timing deserves questions.
Two failures.
Doval arrives.
External scrutiny follows.
A senior-level allegation emerges.
Scientists begin exiting.
Delhi tightens the exits.
Coincidence?
May be.
Or perhaps India's intelligence has already mapped the compromised nodes.
If so, who was behind them?
Someone inside?
Pakistan?
China?
US?
We may not know today.
Perhaps the files open in ten years.
Perhaps fifteen.
But ISRO will fly again.
And when that rocket rises remember something about India.
Our intelligence agencies rarely work for headlines.
If someone compromised India’s space programme,
the real story may not be who gets exposed publicly.
It may be who quietly disappears from the system.
And sometimes, from the radar altogether.
So what exactly did Doval discover inside India’s space fortress?
Courtesy: Deepessh Divaakaran
