Too hard,too fast

The two Antrix-Devas inquiry reports make it clear: the govt has bungled on the blacklist

The two Antrix-Devas inquiry reports make it clear: the govt has bungled on the blacklist

Justifying its decision to blacklist four space scientists,including former ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair,from all government appointment now and in future the government referred to reports of two committees. Both these reports are now public (at least large portions of each) and it is clear that the government has a lot of explaining to do. For one,the two reports sharply differ on key issues. For example,the B.K. Chaturvedi committee report says there was no loss to the exchequer and that there was no fault in the procedure to arrive at the price of the spectrum. The Pratyush Sinha report claims Devas was favoured and that there was collusive behaviour on the part of certain individuals. Neither report points out any quid pro quo or favours exchanged between the scientists and Devas. In other words,the government appears to have tarnished the reputation of four individuals at one stroke without taking recourse to the phases and nuances of due process.

The reports did find procedural lapses and administrative oversight,including failure to inform the cabinet. But Nair,speaking to the newspaper,has an answer to these. What he finds hard to explain is why he has not received any communication from the government yet. Due process dictates the government allow the indicted a chance to speak for themselves. At the least,it could have initiated a legal process which would automatically have allowed the scientists that chance. Instead,the governments handling of the case is amounting to another instance of needless blundering,as with the protracted battle over the army chiefs age.

While Antrix is just the commercial arm of ISRO,the now self-complicating controversy is undermining the credibility of the former ISRO chairman,Nair,and its current chairman,K. Radhakrishnan who was a member of the Pratyush Sinha committee. This mismanagement not only flies in the face of the prime ministers recent emphasis on the need to free science from the constraints of babudom,it also threatens to cloud the functioning of ISRO itself.