Eminent scientist Roddam Narasimha, the seniormost member of the Space Commission, has resigned to protest the blacklisting of former Indian space agency chairman G. Madhavan Nair and three others in connection with the Antrix-Devas spectrum deal, an ISRO official said Friday.

"As Narasimha had submitted his resignation letter directly to the Prime Minister's Office, we do not have details on why he decided to quit. But we learn that he was perturbed over the government's recent action against the four top space scientists, including Nair," an official of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Nair and three other senior space scientists were Jan 13 debarred from holding official posts for their controversial role in the $300-million spectrum deal between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation and the Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia Services Ltd in January 2005.

The Space Commission is the highest policy-making body directing India's space programmes and monitoring the various space application projects of ISRO as its executive wing under the prime minister, who is also in-charge of the space department.

The 11-member space panel, which is headed by ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan, also has three other eminent scientists apart from Narasimha, and five government officials including the national security adviser and the cabinet secretary.

Associated with the Space Commission for over two decades, Narasimha, 78, remained incommunicado on his sudden resignation.

Nair expressed concern at the development and hoped that the prime minister would prevail upon Narasimha to continue.

"The prime minister should persuade Narasimha to stay on as his presence is necessary to guide the panel in carrying on the space programmes in the interests of the country," Nair told IANS here.

Narasimha had been with the space agency during its most difficult phase when it was grappling with the development of rockets such as SLV-3 (satellite launch vehicle), its augmented version (ASLV) and PSLV (polar satellite launch vehicle) in the 1980s and the 1990s, he said.

"As the senior most member of the space panel, Narasimha has been a guiding force for a generation of scientists and assisted the space agency in its various projects," Nair recalled.

"It is unfortunate that Narasimha felt compelled to resign in protest against the way the government treated us, ignoring our contribution to the development of space programmes for the benefit of the country. I am not speaking for myself in an individual capacity but as a scientist who has been associated with the space agency for over four decades," Nair asserted.

Contending that Narasimha's resignation would send wrong signals about the space panel's functioning, Nair said the scientific community's morale would be seriously hit if the government allowed him to go for no fault of him.

"Since the government failed to address our concerns, Narasimha chose to become a martyr by owning moral responsibility for the spectrum deal, as he found no wrong-doing by us in the spectrum contract during the probe he conducted along with former cabinet secretary (B.K. Chaturvedi) as part of the two-member high powered committee," Nair asserted.

"I don't know why the department of space should drive away scientists. I am worried about the future of the Indian space sector," Nair said.

The prime minister constituted a five-member high level team in May 2011 under former Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha to study the Chaturvedi committee report and fix responsibility for the alleged violation of norms.

"Since Narasimha was a member of the committee that probed the contract, he was of the view that the punitive action against the four senior scientists was unwarranted as it was not in commensurate with the lapses that might have occurred in finalising the contract," the ISRO official said.

The Sinha team held the space quartet responsible for serious irregularities in the contract to allot 70MHz of the scarce S-band to Devas for digital services using ISRO's transponders from its proposed GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A advanced communication satellites.

In light of the controversy, the government annulled the contract in February 2011.

Source: Indo-Asia News Service