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Top scientist quits space panel over blacklisting of Nair
Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS

Showing Solidarity Roddam Narasimha, who probed the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, has quit as member of the Space Commission He was upset over the action against former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and others in connection with the deal Narasimha has sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Bangalore, February 24
In a scathing criticism of the Union Government, eminent aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha, 78, today said that the action against former ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair and three others in connection with the Antrix-Devas agreement prompted him to send his resignation to the Prime Minister.

“I wish to clarify that I have requested the Prime Minister to permit me to relinquish my membership of the Space Commission. The Prime Minister has not (as of now) accepted my request,” Professor Narasimha has said in a statement.

He said the government decision to blacklist Madhavan Nair and three others, including former Antrix MD KR Sridharamurthi, “could demoralise the ISRO scientific community, and adversely affect its ability to take the kind of technological initiatives that are the hallmark of an innovative organisation”.

Acknowledging that there were “lapses” in the Antrix-Devas agreement, Narasimha said the two-member probe committee of which he was a member had recommended various reforms to ensure that the identified lapses would not recur in future.

“These reforms have also included some concerning the Space Commission. As one who has been privileged to be a member of the commission for about two decades, it has seemed most appropriate to me that the proposed reforms, and such others as may be considered necessary, are carried out best by a commission of which I am no longer a member.

This is the second reason for my request to the Prime Minister regarding my membership of the commission,” Narasimha said.

Pointing out that they found no evidence of financial bungling by ISRO officials in Antrix-Devas agreement, Narasimha said ISRO was a great national asset. “My appeal to everybody is to ensure that any action taken should be such as to strengthen the community of thousands of engineers who make our admired achievements in space possible,” he said.

Narasimha and former Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi were the two members of the high-power committee that was constituted by the Prime Minister in February 2011 to inquire into the $300-million S-band Spectrum (radio waves) contract between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Services (the Indian company set up by an American firm) in January 2005.

In light of the controversy, the government had annulled the contract in February 2011 invoking its sovereign right.