Foreign hand behind row over S band, says G. Madhavan Nair

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Former ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair suspects an international conspiracy behind the S band controversy.

Nair told a meet-the-press programme here on Friday that the timing of the controversy needed to be noted: it erupted immediately after the success of the Chandrayan mission.

The fact was that the Chathurvedi Commission which first probed the Antrix-Devas deal did not find any malpractices and misuse of funds.

It was the Prathyush Sinha Committee which probed the issue subsequently that raised issues relating to the deal.

The findings of the Prathyush panel sounded dubious, he said.

"We should remember that the ISRO spy case of the 1990s had occurred immediately after the success of the PSLV programme. Some foreign agencies who were jealous of the success were behind the spy case,'' he said.

Referring to the blacklisting of four scientists including him, following the S band controversy, he said the action taken following the controversies had demoralised the scientific community.

He said that the functioning of ISRO in the last two years was not satisfactory.