Isro crisis: Indicted Madhavan Nair says probe one-sided

BANGALORE: Reacting to reports by two panels that probed the Antrix-Devas deal, former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair on Sunday said the first panel had been “absolutely factual”, but the second presented “one-sided, selective, inconsistent and contradictory findings”.
While the first panel recommended reforms in the approval process, the second indicted Nair for various acts of commission.It held A Bhaskarnarayana, Sridhara Murthi and K N Shankara responsible for various acts of commission, and S S Meenakshisundaram, Veena S Rao, G Balachandran and R G Nadadur responsible for acts of omissions.
First panel did excellent job, says Nair
Speaking to TOI after the Antrix-Devas deal probe reports were uploaded on the Isro website, former Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair said: “While I will give a detailed, technical response, I would like to say from what I have seen that the first report has been absolutely factual.”
He said, “While it states that there has been a procedural lapse in not informing the Cabinet, it makes clear that there was no spectrum deal. Not one word of insinuation or punishment has been mentioned other than sharing responsibility for weaknesses in the contract. Improvements and reforms to be undertaken have also been suggested. There ends the matter. Why the witch-hunt after that? Why set up the second panel? Who wanted it and why?”
Nair said, “The first panel has done an excellent job. Our views correlate with their findings. I even subscribe to factual positions outlined by it. But the second panel did not even meet the number of times it was supposed to meet as per quorum. Legally and procedurally, there’s a problem with the way the second panel has conducted itself. I had written to the then cabinet secretary seeking adherence to proper procedure.”
Nair said only the second panel used words like “deliberate” and “collusion. “What was its agenda? What was it supposed to do when the first panel had clearly stated there were some procedural issues and had called for reforms?” Nair wondered.
The two committees set up by the PM to probe the Antrix-Devas agreement, found procedural and administrative lapses in the approval and decision-making process.
While neither panel terms the contract a “scam”, both point out that the Antrix board did not inform the Space Commission and the Union cabinet of the agreement while seeking approval for satellites.
The first panel comprising Planning Commission member BK Chaturvedi and scientist Roddam Narasimha said, “While the Space Commission and Cabinet were not informed of the agreement, there has been no cheap and short-selling of spectrum in the agreement.”
Among a host of other observations running into 150 pages, the panel stated that the Space Commission approved the satellite project GSAT-6 in May 2005 and the Cabinet approved the same in October 2009 and a follow-up project GSAT-6A was approved in October 2009.
“The contract terms were loaded heavily in favour of Devas. The agreement was not cleared by the legal cell of the department concerned and the ministry of finance as required. “Satisfactory answers have not been given to various points ... There is an attempt at obfuscation by key players and they have remained silent on issues like arbitrary selection, lack of proper financial and technical evaluation, undue favours at government cost to Devas, lack of transparency and finally exposing Antrix and government to unwarranted commercial risks.”