Rotten state of governance

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ is a Shakespearean quote signifying that all was not well at the top of the political hierarchy. Something is definitely rotten about the intemperate language used by V Narayanasamy, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), when he spoke disparagingly about the whole scientific community in India. He was justifying the extraordinary January 13, 2012 order by the Department of Space, barring former Indian Space Research Organisation luminaries Madhavan Nair (former ISRO chairman), Bhaskarnarayana, Sridharmurthi and Shankara from occupying any current or future government position for their alleged role in the 2005 Antrix-Devas deal, later annulled in 2011. Antrix, the marketing arm of ISRO, is supposed to have wrongfully allotted valuable communication S-band spectrum to Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd. It still remains unclear exactly why the eminent technocrats were blacklisted.

Exemplary action must be taken against anyone proven guilty of cheating the national exchequer in the Antrix allotment of spectrum, but after a due legal process. These respected technocrats who powered a halcyon period in ISRO’s history, with over 25 successful space missions, including proudly displaying our tricolor on the Moon (via Chandrayaan) and discovering water on it, deserved to be heard before being indicted. Ironically, politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen accused of looting this nation in all the recent scams were given months, even years, to hide whatever it was they needed to.

These scientists, with crucial roles in making India one of the few countries with a meaningful presence in space, were slapped with unspecified wrongdoing and summarily stripped of all academic and government-related responsibilities. They are now personae non gratae at the very institution to which they had contributed four decades of the best years of their lives. Even an enemy of the Indian state, 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, was given legal privileges and the benefit of a long-drawn-out court process.

The former ISRO chief, his colleagues and the scientific community at large were publicly subjected to a loose-tongued diatribe by Narayanasamy. “Let this be a lesson to all scientists”, he thundered, with regrettable lack of sensitivity and due respect. Bluster will not quell men of substance. Madhavan Nair went on the warpath, denying any wrongdoing. He firmly insisted that accepted procedures were followed: While the Antrix-Devas deal was initiated at ISRO, it had to be completed at the Department of Telecommunication. Many pre-eminent Indian scientists spoke strongly against the unfair manner of the blacklisting of the space technocrats and targeted Narayanasamy’s harangue aimed at all Indian scientists. Consequently, the minister has blinked. Still, while India is famous for inventing the quantity ‘zero’, this dissembling dispensation is infamous for its ‘zero-loss’ theory in the 2G scam.

The PMO has failed in its duty of keeping the prime minister informed, not just in this case, but in many other cases, including 2G. In its landmark January 31 verdict upholding the right of any private citizen to seek sanction to prosecute a public servant for corruption, the Supreme Court squarely blamed the PMO for not advising the PM correctly. That these space scientists were denied the fundamental right to be informed of their transgressions (if any) and of being given a fair chance to explain themselves, is sheer injustice.

The current ISRO-cum-scientists fiasco reveals faulty governmental methodology. In ISRO, are there no inbuilt, fool-proof, transparent procedures to preclude honest oversight, cronyism or other wrongdoing? The composition of the committee which purportedly recommended action against Madhavan Nair and the others has been questioned about its technical expertise about satellite technology/ISRO parameters by U R Rao, former chairman, ISRO. Roddam Narasimha, a member of the Chaturvedi-Narasimha Committee, which first enquired into the Antrix-Devas deal, has also questioned the precipitate action. Was competitive bidding a compulsory norm? Many top bureaucrats were common to the space commission and the Antrix Board. Why then is wrongdoing/defective procedure being attributed exclusively to the four technocrat members? The Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG) of India preliminarily opined that the Antrix-Devas deal may have cost the national exchequer `2 lakh-crore, though commercial norms have changed from 2005 to now. It’s difficult to believe that not one but two custom-built satellites could be launched into space, as specified in the Antrix-Devas deal, without the Space Commission and the government being aware.

The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill also reveals what can only be described as the sinister mindset of the government towards science and scientists. According to it, ‘confidential commercial information’ cannot be accessed under the RTI Act. Labelling of Genetically Modified (GM) foods is not required. You cannot know, therefore, whether you are buying GM rice/tomatoes/brinjals, or not, depriving you of the right to choose. While controversy remains about the environmental and health effects of GM products, the Bill mandates that anyone making a statement about a GM crop, which according to BRAI is false/misleading, can be jailed for up to three months and fined up to `5 lakh. The Bill is to be composed mainly of bureaucrats. Incidentally, while the formation of BRAI was proposed by agroscientist M S Swaminathan, he himself expressed doubts about its final draft. Noteworthy is that the premier biotech company Monsanto, in a series of Indian newspaper advertisements issued in August 2011, had claimed that GM cotton technology had boosted the income of Indian cotton farmers by over `31,500 crore. The national advertising regulator, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), found the claim to be unsubstantiated and has asked Monsanto to drop this claim.

Recent government moves have undermined the institutions of the CAG, Parliamentary Affairs Committee (PAC), Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), Chief Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Indian Army, the Chief Election Commission, and given that the Unique Identity Authority of India is functioning without mandatory parliamentary sanction, arguably, Parliament is also being undermined. With the ISRO fiasco and the wilful BRAI opacity, the government has callously undermined not only ISRO, an institution which has made all Indians immensely proud, but also the morale of the Indian scientific community.

(Views expressed in the column are the author’s own)

Vinod Kumar B is a social commentator and founder of MotivOcean, a Bangalore-based abilities training organisation.

E-mail: vkbsir@gmail.com