Former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Natwar Singh says he had advised Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to sack Arun Singh as Minister of State (Defence) in 1986 after Rajiv had cited information based on US and Soviet satellites and Singh questioned the efficiency of these stating that Pakistan army had assumed offensive positions.
Natwar Singh's book 'One Life is Not Enough' includes startling accounts of foreign policy matters, Natwar describes how in 1986, when he was minister of state for external affairs, he had asked PM Rajiv Gandhi to sack Arun Singh, MoS for defence. According to the book, the Army had planned extensive military exercises on the Indo-Pak border, and Rajiv held a meeting where he said that the US and Soviet envoys had reported there was nothing to suggest that the Pakistan Army had assumed offensive positions. Arun Singh, Natwar writes, questioned the efficiency of US and Soviet satellites.
According to the book, Rajiv later asked defence minister N D Tiwari and Natwar what he should do with Arun Singh. Natwar writes that Tiwari was silent and that he (Natwar) told Rajiv to sack the minister. In another account Natwar Singh described how nuclear tests in Pokharan were called off in 1995 after US officials confronted then PM P V Narasimha Rao. This was after "American satellites picked up the activities around Pokharan." Subsequently, Natwar writes, the satellite images were brought to India by the American ambassador and shown to the prime minister. "President Clinton also spoke to him in strong terms, and P V changed his mind," he writes.