ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan who spoke to mediapersons in Bangalore on Monday, refuted all allegations made against him by his predecessor and one of the barred high profile space scientists, G Madhavan Nair.
Radhakrishnan justified the official report and said it was nothing personal. The ISRO chairman also indicated that all the scientists had been given opportunities through questionnaires to give their opinion by the two official committees. He said the inquiries were not an act of cowardice as alleged by Nair.
The ISRO chief also said the chairman of the High Level Team (HLT) had given opportunities to the scientists, including Nair, to express their views.
He said, “It is an official recommendation of the committee. It is nothing personal. The HLT had given opportunities to them to express their views.” Radhakrishnan also justified that it was not essential to make everything public.
The Department of Space on Saturday night made public the report of the high powered review committee (HPRC) which reviewed the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the Antrix-Devas deal and conclusions and recommendations of the HLT, which were slammed by Madhavan Nair. He had directly blamed Radhakrishnan for orchestrating the entire drama.
The report released by ISRO indicting its former chief Nair and three other space scientists has sparked a war of words between him and the Government.
Meanwhile, V Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the PMO, has charged Madhavan Nair with misleading the nation in the entire episode. He told the media that Nair was given an opportunity to present his views on the issue.
He said, “Madhavan Nair misled the nation, saying that he was not given an opportunity to explain. But the Pratyush Sinha committee report clearly mentions that there was personal hearing of Madhavan Nair and he was heard. Therefore, the principle of natural justice has been followed in his case. The other scientists also were given the questionnaire and they have replied.”
Narayanasamy’s comments came after Nair had trashed the ISRO report on Sunday, accusing the space agency of being selective in revealing facts. “Whatever bits and pieces are being released show that they don’t want to reveal the full facts...the portions which are quoted from Pratyush Sinha committee are inaccurate and inconsistent... If a committee works on one-sided basis, that is the Pratyush Sinha committee that I am referring to. Most of the meetings were attended only by Secretary of Devas and chairman of the panel,” he said.
It may be recalled that in the scrapped deal 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 1,000 crore.
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