Man who put India on moon finds himself on the mat

Stung by the Department of Space’s ban order against him, G Madhavan Nair hit out against his successor and current ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishan.

Blaming Radhakrishan for misleading the government, he said the ban on him was a personal vendetta launched by the current ISRO Chairman.

“From the beginning facts have been distorted and people have been misled. This deal was finalised by the Antrix board which is the highest decision making body of ISRO’s commercial arm and he (Radhakrishan) was a member at the time and had given consent his to all the decisions that were taken,” Nair told DNA.

Nair was the Chairman of ISRO when the controversial deal between Antrix and Devas Multi-media Private Limited was signed in 2005.

The former ISRO Chairman and the man who put India on the moon said that he was deeply hurt by the way he and his former colleagues have been has been indicted in the report.

“This is gross injustice done to some of the top Scientists of the country and the action against us is unprecedented in any angle be it legally, procedurally or the human aspect if u look at,” he said

He also said that the Committee did not give him a fair chance and was not allowed to make his point.

“The whole procedure followed by the committee is wrong I was only sent a questioner like the one they distribute for conducting poll surveys. No reactions or comments were sought and there were no formal hearing by the committee,” he said.

Reposing faith in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh he said that he was confident that the PMO would bail him out, however he did not rule out legal action.

Nair on Wednesday met his beleaguered colleagues at his residence at HSR Layout to chalk out their future course of action.