Why no action on babus, PM asked
In a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Pushpa Bhargava, who established genetic engineering in India, has expressed shock that not a single bureaucrat has been singled out in the controversial Antrix-Devas Mulitmedia deal.
“No deal on that scale could have been executed without the knowledge of senior bureaucrats in the department of space. Why have senior scientists been brought to task while bureaucrats allowed to go scott free ?” Mr Bhargava has questioned in this letter. While minister of state in the PMO A. Narayanasamy has stressed that the government’s decision to take action against Isro chief Madhavan Nair and three top scientists was the result of the findings of two government appointed committees, Mr Bhargava questioned why the findings of these committees have not been placed in the public domain. Mr Bhargava also questioned why the present Isro chairman K. Radhakrishnan was appointed one of the members of the two member Suresh Committee. “Radkakrishnan was a party to the Antrix-Devas deal and this was a clear case of conflict of interest,” he said. He also expressed surprise as to why none of the scientists were asked to make a personal appearance to explain their point of view before these committees. “Ever more significant,” Mr Bhargava said, “is that earlier chairmen of the department of space (DoS) including Prof U.R. Rao and Prof. Kasturirangan are top notch scientists while Rao is also a member of the Space Commission .They understand the functioning of DoS and should have been asked to provide their expertise and insight to these proceedings.”
He also stressed that the findings of an earlier committee headed by B.K. Chaturvedi and Prof R. Narasimhan on this Antrix-Devas deal have also been hushed up.
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