M A I N   N E W S

No vendetta against Nair, his team: ISRO chief
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, February 6
Having suffered attacks from his predecessor Madhavan Nair all these days, ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan today snapped back, saying there was “nothing personal” in the action initiated against Nair and three others for their role in the Antrix-Devas agreement.

A cautious Radhakrishnan refrained from dwelling any further on Nair’s personal vendetta charges against him, saying the reports of the two committees probing the agreement had been put in the public domain and these were sufficient to justify the steps against Nair and others.

Portions of reports of the two committees set up by the Centre to look into the controversial Antrix-Devas agreement posted on the ISRO website have made an important observation in favour of the accused while at the same time hauling them up for some lapses.

The revelation in favour of the accused was that there was no spectrum scam.

Riding piggyback on these two words (“spectrum scam”) — following the CAG’s reported observation that the scam caused a loss of Rs two lakh crore to the exchequer — the story had hit headlines.

The two-member committee consisting of Prof Roddam Narasimhan, aerospace scientist and Space Commission member and BK Chaturvedi, Planning Commission member and former Cabinet Secretary, however, categorically stated there was no scam in the agreement.

“Concerns on cheap selling of spectrum to Devas have no basis whatsoever. Space spectrum is not comparable to terrestrial spectrum. Devas was also required to obtain licence from DoT/I&B for providing services to customers and would have to pay, apart from transponder leasing charges, other charges which would be determined by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) based on their consultation mechanism,” the report said.

The Chaturvedi committee also noted that in several areas, the committee headed by KN Shankara, the then director of Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, made “good recommendations which reduced the risk of Antrix/ISRO”.

This committee was set up to look into technology, risk management and financial terms offered by Devas and also the idea of a joint venture with Devas being contemplated by ISRO/Antrix.

However, the Chaturvedi committee added that there were other areas where the Shankara committee’s report had gaps.

These included availability of frequency and possible alternative uses of S-band.

KN Shankara, former ISRO chief Madhavan Nair, former Antrix MD KR Sridhara Murthi and another colleague of theirs, find themselves blacklisted.

The five-member committee headed by former CVC Pratyush Sinha, which was set up by the government after receiving the report of the Chaturvedi committee, had suggested action against the former ISRO executives including investigation by appropriate agencies and stopping their pensions.

Both committees found fault with Nair and others for not keeping the Space Commission (of which Nair was the chairman, he being the then chairman of ISRO) and the Cabinet in the dark about the Antrix-Devas agreement.

But Sinha committee failed to establish any case of financial irregularity against the accused.