Nair

Bangalore, Feb. 26 (PTI): Former Isro chief G. Madhavan Nair has written to the Prime Minister’s Office seeking an inquiry into the reasons behind the scrapping of the Antrix-Devas deal.

“I have addressed (the charges) a detailed letter,” Nair, one of four scientists blacklisted by the government over the deal, said in Bangalore today. “They have made certain charges, that I have put a least penalty clause (in the contract)... defence requirements were not met, etc, .… Point by point, I have explained to them,” he said.

He has addressed the letter to the minister in the PMO, V. Narayanasamy, because “I thought he (Narayanasamy) should know there is something beyond official reports”, Nair said. “That’s the whole purpose (of writing the letter to him).”

Two probes were conducted on the satellite deal between Devas, a private organisation, and Antrix, Isro’s commercial arm. Last month, on the basis of these two reports — one of them accused the scientists of “collusive behaviour and of unduly favouring Devas” — Nair and three other scientists were barred from holding any government posts.

Nair then charged Isro chairperson K. Radhakrishnan with “witch-hunting” and “vendetta” and of misleading the government on the deal.

Noting that one of the two committees — with former cabinet secretary B.K. Chaturvedi and aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha — had probed all aspects of the deal till December 2009, Nair said he wanted the government to conduct an independent inquiry from December 2009 onwards on “what all happened”.

“I also told them (in the letter) that we lost a golden opportunity (by annulling the contract). What needs to be enquired into is the reason for cancelling the contract and the process and procedure behind that,” he said in what seemed like a jab at Radhakrishnan, believed to be instrumental behind the scrapping of the deal.