New Delhi:
The government has refused to budge from its decision to blacklist one of India's most eminent scientists, G Madhavan Nair, from government jobs. When Mr Nair was Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO, a deal was signed with a company named Devas that would have cost the government huge losses.
A committee set up by the Prime Minister to examine that deal handed its report to the government today. "Accountability will be fixed," said V Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office. "The government will go by the findings of the report," he said, adding that Mr Nair can appeal against the government's decision.
This morning, Mr Nair told NDTV he's already considering taking the government to court. "Am I worse than terrorists?" he asked, referring to the fact that he has been banned from government jobs, along with three other colleagues, even though there's no chargesheet against him.
In 2005, ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix, agreed to build two satellites and provide scarce S-band spectrum for Devas, which planned to offer commercial broadband services. Devas was told to pay Rs. 1000 crore - a sweetheart deal that, according to some estimates, meant the government would incur losses worth two lakh crore rupees. Media reports rocketed the deal into controversy last year, especially embarrassing for the government since ISRO reports directly to the Prime Minister's Office. In May last year, the Prime Minister set up a three-member committee to examine the agreement between Antrix and Devas after media reports exposed the problematic contract.
Mr Nair blames his successor at ISRO, K Radhakrishnan, for misrepresenting the facts. "He (Radhakrishnan) has misled the Government on the whole issue (the controversial Devas deal). He is the key person who worked behind this; he misled and mis-communicated to the Government and he has taken action", alleged Mr Nair. Along with him, the three former ISRO colleagues who have allegedly been indicted for the Devas deal are K Bhaskaranarayana who was Scientific Secretary at ISRO; K N Shankara, former Director of the ISRO satellite centre; and K R Sridharamurthi, who was the Managing Director of Antrix.