The Centre, which so far has maintained a tough stand on former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman G Madhavan Nair and three other space scientists after they were indicted by the two Antrix-Devas probe committees, on Friday appeared to have softened its stand.
Speaking on the sidelines of the CII India Corporate and Investor Meet, Union minister for corporate affairs, Veerappa Moily said issues pertaining to the ban cannot be taken lightly. said issues pertaining to the ban cannot be taken lightly.
“We have to treat the scientific community as a national asset, and that national asset cannot be taken lightly,” he said.
Referring to the statements of High Powered Review Committee members BK Chaturvedi and Roddam Narsimha on the deal, Moily said even their report had not pointed at anything criminal or at any misappropriation in the deal.
“Scientists may not have followed certain procedures and rules, but the faults have been attributed to them,” said Moily who, as Union law minister, had given his consent for annulling the Antrix-Devas deal.
Following the indictment of the four scientists in the reports, minister of state, Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanaswamy had said that the government could reconsider the ban.
The committee headed by Pratyush Sinha had pointed at several lapses of judgement on the part of Nair and his colleagues.
Moily said there was no proposal before his ministry to probe the operations of Devas.
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