NEW DELHI: In a damning action, government has barred former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and three eminent space scientists from any re-employment for their alleged role in the controversial allocation of scarce S-band space segment to private firm Devas.
The action, probably the first of its kind against a former Secretary-level technocrat and other retired officials, follows a high-level inquiry into the controversial deal under which Antrix was to lease out bulk transponders on two satellites to Devas for launch of digital multimedia services.
68-year-old Nair, the architect of India’s maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I, hit back at the government accusing it of “witch-hunting” and threatened to move court seeking relief.
He also attacked the incumbent ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan saying that he had misled the government on the issue.
The order by the Department of Space mandates that Nair and three other top officials “shall be excluded from re-employment, committee roles or any other important role under the government.”
“These four former officers shall be divested of any current assignment/consultancy with the government with immediate effect,” said the order dated January 13.
Nair was the Chairman of three entities – ISRO, Space Commission and Antrix Corporation, and Secretary, Department of Space. The other three officials against whom action has been taken are A Bhaskaranarayana, former scientific secretary at ISRO, K R Sridharamurthi, former managing director of Antrix, ISRO’s commercial arm, and K N Shankara, former director of the ISRO Satellite Centre.
Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy said the decision to crack the whip was taken by the Prime Minister’s Office which considered the report of a high-level panel on the deal and recommendations on it by a team led by former CVC Pratyush Sinha.
Am I worse than terrorist?
Bitter over the action taken against him and three other eminent space scientists on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal issue, former ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair slammed it as “an act of cowardice” and accused his successor K Radhakrishnan of being behind the move and “misleading” the government.
He also accused Radhakrishnan of having a “personal agenda.
“He has misled the Government on the whole issue (the deal). He is the key person who worked behind this; he misled and miscommunicated to the Government and he has taken action,” Nair said, targeting Radhakrishnan, secretary in the Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission.
“That individual is bent upon hitting so many people and in that process, he is killing the organisation,” he alleged.
“This (the action) is a complete act of cowardice,” Nair said. It was a “clear violation of conduct and pension rules” as well as legal aspects, said Nair, who was the key figure behind India’s Chandrayaan-1 moon mission.
“Even the person who has done the terror attack in Mumbai….he is enjoying the freedom of going to 3-4 levels of appeal. Are we worse than terrorists?”, he asked.
“Even in a military rule, the people are given a hearing before condemnation is made. This (the action against us) is worse than that,” said Nair, hurt over the action to bar him and three other scientists from holding any government post.
The government action came in the wake of the controversial Antrix-Devas deal in which a private company was allotted scarce S band spectrum by ISRO allegedly violating rules, when Nair was the agency’s chairman. (PTI)