New Delhi, Sep 21 - Strongly refuting the statement of National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist K. Santhanam said Monday he was 'barking up the wrong tree' and reiterated that the thermonuclear test of 1998 had not worked according to 'design expectations'.

The NSA had told a television channel in an interview that Santhanam and other scientists, who have recently been raising doubts about the test, had ulterior motives and that they were not privy to classified information to come to that conclusion.

'He is barking up the wrong tree,' responded Santhanam at an interaction with Indian Women's Press Corps.

He released photographs of the test crater site, pointing out that there was no crater there.

Santhanam said reservations about the test had been recorded in 1998 in a classified report sent to the government. 'It is not that we kept quiet about it,' he said.