Going ballistic

Only three weeks ago,at the Indian National Science Congress,the prime minister underlined the need to free science from the constraints of officialdom,to respect and nurture scientists. Such sentiments hardly explain the bizarre order by which the government has punished former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair for his alleged and still unknown role in a now-scrapped deal between Antrix ISROs commercial arm and multimedia company Devas,over the allocation of S-band spectrum without competitive bidding. After a PMO-appointed probe into the matter,Nair and three of his former colleagues have been banned from any government appointment,now or in the future.

Nair has hit back,alleging personal vendetta by current ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan,and claimed that he hasnt got a fair hearing. We are being treated worse than terrorists, he told this newspaper. Such anguish is understandable,given how Nair has been feted and decorated by the government so far he got the Padma Bhushan in 1998 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2009 after ISRO launched the first Chandrayaan mission. He chairs the board of governors of the new IIT at Patna. The reports that indicted him are still under wraps and in the meantime,the science establishment has been roiled with unseeemly rumour and allegation. Why has the government not cleared the air and explained his alleged wrongdoing before taking such an unprecedented step? It has neither allowed the scientists an opportunity to explain their positions nor moved legal action against them. By issuing such an order,the government has only ended up pitching ISRO into crisis,allowing the space agency to appear as a site of machination and intrigue. With its clumsy handling,it has undermined the credibility of one of the more robust,

high-achieving public scientific organisations.

There is an instructive parallel between the governments blundering approach to the ISRO scientists and the way it managed the army chiefs age controversy both highly delicate matters that called for tact and an awareness of the institutional reputation at stake. The government,instead,by playing tough,made a bad situation worse and provoked a regrettable public confrontation. The army chief has gone to the Supreme Court; now the former ISRO chief suggests he could go to court,too. You couldnt get a better tableau to showcase the governments ineptitude.