BANGALORE: Bitter over the action against him in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair today accused the government of "witch-hunting" and "vendetta politics" and threatened to move court.
Slamming action of barring him and three others from re-employment as "an act of cowardice", he accused ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan of being behind the move and "misleading" the government.
Nair said the government action was a witch-hunt and threatened to move court.
Radhakrishnan and ISRO refrained from commenting on Nair's outbursts.
"Are we worse than terrorists," asked an emotional Nair saying that the government has not given reasons behind its actions.
Targeting Radhakrishnan, Nair said: "He has misled the Government on the whole issue (the deal). He is the key person who worked behind this; he misled and miscommunicated to the Government and he has taken action".
"This (the action) is a complete act of cowardice," Nair said. It was a "clear violation of conduct and pension rules" as well as legal aspects, said Nair, who was the key figure behind India's Chandrayaan-1 moon mission.
Under the deal, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment to Devas for its digital multimedia services. This was to be done by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in satellites GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A that are proposed to be launched by ISRO. Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of USD 300 million over 12 years.