BENGALURU: A group of senior scientists have written to the President of India, seeking his intervention in the affairs of ISRO. The scientists wrote of reports on ‘a motivated and politically engineered transfer of Tapan Misra, an ISRO scientist’, and sought an urgent intervention against ‘acts of interference, punitive actions and motivated appointments’.
The scientists included Gauhar Raza, former chief scientist at Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Mewa Singh, Distinguished Professor for Life, University of Mysore, Subodh Mahanti, former director of Vigyan Prasar and 25 other retired senior scientists.
“The media also reported that Misra has been transferred to ISRO headquarters, for two reasons: First, because he had opposed delay in a project, and second, because he opposes the move to privatise ISRO. If this is true, then the act of transferring Misra will cause widespread demotivation among scientific community as it constitutes a strong signal to scientists to either align their views with the political powers of the day, or else be prepared to migrate elsewhere,” they wrote.
They have contended that the transfer was not an isolated incident.