NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today dismissed doubts raised about the success of the country’s nuclear tests in 1998.

Indian nuclear scientist S Santhanam, who was a director for 1998 nuclear test site preparations, has claimed that the tests were only partially successful and the results were much weaker than what was claimed at the time. He said the explosions did not yield the desired results as the thermonuclear device tested was a “fizzle.” The statement triggered controversy over India’s nuclear capability but India’s former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who headed the nuclear programme, said the May 1998 Pokhran tests were successful.

“A wrong impression has been given by some scientists which is needless. Kalam has clarified that the tests were successful,” Manmohan Singh said during a visit to Rajasthan, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The tests involving five nuclear devices were conducted by India in May 1998 at the Pokhran test range, an isolated region in the desert state of Rajasthan.