Mr G. Madhavan Nair, once the big man in the space establishment and now placed in the dock by the Pratyush Sinha high-powered review committee, said on Sunday evening that he was awaiting some favourable response from the Prime Minister to revoke the blacklist and clear his name in the Antrix-Devas imbroglio.
On the day the department made the two reports public, he maintained that he and his former three ISRO colleagues were victims of a systematic “witch-hunt’’. He would not comment on the Sinha committee’s report, as it was revealed partially; he said the panel heard only the views of the Department of Space Secretary [his successor], and wrote along the lines that DoS wanted.
According to him, members of the Sinha committee attended only two of the four meetings; the other two times only the DoS Secretary briefed the former Chief Vigilance Commissioner.
“It is one-sided... Last week I wrote to the Prime Minister asking for the basis of the ban order and asked him for file notings. I have appealed to him for putting the order on hold and review it. I am positive,’’ he told Business Line by telephone. [DoS issued the order on January 13 to all Chief Secretaries.]
“DoS has taken the law into its hands. The Secretary has misled [the rest] into issuing the vague directive,’’ he remarked. The agreement was cancelled first and the probes came later. “There have been irregularities after 2009 rather than after 2004,’’ he remarked about his six-year tenure.
Around July-August last year, he had answered 14 queries raised by the panel. He even had to “gatecrash’’ to meet Mr Sinha to explain his views and seek background documents but unlike the other panel, there was no further communication.
Asked about the financial and procedural irregularities that were listed by the committees, he said the first report, by the Chaturvedi-Roddam Narasimha inquiry committee, was “factual’’ and fair. As it had noted, after all, “No loss of money or sale of spectrum had taken place but only procedural lapses.’’ Yet the punitive action taken after the Sinha report did not match the lapses.
Wasn’t Devas just a month-old company for ISRO to be entering such a major agreement? Mr Nair defended the agreement and said there was complaint during his regime of 2003-09.
He insisted that he and the three technocrats “did nothing wrong but followed all the norms of my time. ... My colleagues have been upright and sincere officials.’’
As for the “witch-hunt’’ charge, he said it could be due to misunderstandings or external pressure.
<madhu@thehindu.co.in>