Bangalore: Space scientist A Bhaskaranarayana,
one of the four former ISRO scientists blacklisted from
government jobs on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, on Wednesday
said the action has left him feeling miserable and worried
over his standing in society.
"We feel miserable. We have worked for 37 years... average
nine to ten hours a day including Sundays, and one day we have
been given such a notice (barring them from government jobs)",
an anguished Bhaskaranarayana, a former Scientific Secretary
at ISRO, said here.
"Such an urgency and emergency only for four of us? We are
not the only ones in the country", he said.
"I am not doing any government work right now but in
society what's our value?", he asked. "We feel miserable,
don't get sleep in the night".
Asked why he thought the four had been "singled out" for
the action, Bhaskaranarayana said: "Four of us were occupying
some positions important at that time which are relating to
this area (Antrix-Devas deal).
On whether he saw a conspiracy against the four or
somebody behind the move, he said he does not want to guess at
all. "It's very difficult to say. People like us who are
scientists, we don't know politics. We do our work and get
out", he said.
Bhaskaranarayana had quit his visiting professorship
(after retirement from ISRO), six months before the two-year
tenure was to come to an end, following the change of guard at
the space agency with K Radhakrishnan taking over from G
Madhavan Nair as Chairman.
"I had my own personal reasons (to quit before completion).
When Chairman changes, some important positions have to
change", he said, seeking to blame Radhakrishnan indirectly.
Former ISRO Chief Nair, who has also been barred from
occupying government posts, had accused Radhakrishnan of being
responsible for the punitive action against him and the three
others because of a "personal agenda."
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 01, 2012, 16:04