BENGALURU: There are loud rumblings of “unfairness and merit taking a backseat” at the country’s premier ISRO.
Some senior scientists complained that there is tangible discrimination in extension of service and disparity in promotions. They pointed out that one person, a “close friend” of a top official, was promoted unfairly. They complained of toxic influence of “caste and regional considerations”, instead of merit, coming to play in the organisation.
Highly placed sources sent a note to The New Indian Express, putting down their source of disillusionment and despair on paper. They said that as far as discrimination in extension of service is concerned, only two of them M Sankaran of URSC and Padma Kumar of IISU received a two-year extension. Others -- Nilesh M Desai, Dr V Narayanan, Padmakumar, M Mohan of HSFC, A Rajarajan of SDSC, Dr PV Radha Devi of ADRIN and Nigar Shahji, project director, URSC -- got a mere one-year extension.
The note said, “Padmakumar is comparatively junior and not known for significant contribution to ISRO as compared to the others.’’
The service of Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, present director of VSSC, was extended by two years, they said.
The disgruntled scientists asked, “What are the noteworthy contributions made by these scientists that they got a two-year extension, while the others got one year? Are they better than those scientists whose names are mentioned earlier, or is it because they belong to a (particular) caste or linguistic group?”
They specifically pointed to the promotions made in ISRO from January 2022 and at VSSC from January 2018. They alleged that a highly placed official, who is well known in ISRO, “directly intervenes in issues of promotion. Persons from a particular state, to which that senior official belongs, are given preference in promotion.”
The note alleged that a particular scientist, who belongs to the senior official’s caste and who is his “close friend”, was appointed director of an important ISRO project and was being promoted and preferred by a senior key official. They said this “caste and linguistic preferences over merit” could prove costly for ISRO.
A senior ISRO official when contacted on these allegations, said, “There cannot be any scope for these allegations because there are processes in place and there is not much scope for discretion for any one person. Obviously Everyone cannot become chairman of ISRO. This could be from some disgruntled persons.’’