THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could create ripples in national politics, former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair has indicated that the controversy over the Antrix- Devas deal was hatched to cover up the Rs 1.7 lakh crore 2G Spectrum scam involving then Union minister A Raja.
The Devas scam was seen as an opportunity by some people to corner then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Department of Space (DOS) was directly under the PM, says Nair in his autobiography ‘Rocketing Through the Skies’, which was published a couple of days back.
Going by Nair’s narrative, there was obvious political conniving behind raking up the Rs 2.8 lakh crore Devas row. In the wake of the 2G Spectrum scam, an official with A Raja wanted to save the minster’s skin and tried to shove the responsibility of the Devas scam onto the shoulder of the then PM. In the book, Nair also casts serious aspersions on his successor K Radhakrishnan for his part in the controversy.
An audit query by the CAG highlighting that DOS had caused a presumptive loss of Rs 2.8 lakh crore on account of the Antrix-Devas deal by short-selling the spectrum, triggered what was later termed as the Devas scam, says Nair.
Referring to the additional secretary G Balachandran, the book says, “I even heard at one point that there were rumours that the additional secretary was working with minister A Raja and that the audit query had been deliberately leaked to the media to help Raja dilute his case.”
‘PMO formed a shield around Singh to prevent loss of face’
The book is an English re-telling of his 2017 autobiography ‘Agnipareekshakal’. The chapter ‘A Sordid Drama: The Devas Scam’, in the new work updated by Jaya G Nair and brought out by Rupa Publications, details the manner of the build-up of the Devas controversy. Nair says though the deal was cancelled, later the CAG comprehended the mistake of projecting a pre-emptive loss of Rs 2.8 lakh crore.
Going into minute details, Nair says how he, during a failure-analysis meeting at VSSC
Thiruvananthapuram on May 31, 2010, had got a message to urgently contact the PMO. The PM came online and asked about media reports on DOS causing loss to the government. Nair says both the PM and the PMO were convinced of his explanation.
However, the PMO immediately formed a shield around the prime minister to prevent a public loss of face. As per the information that he had received, a team of central ministers was assigned the task of shielding the PM.
Talking to TNIE, Nair said it could be suspected that the Devas controversy was created to cover up the 2G spectrum scam. “Going by the context it’s quite possible that the Devas controversy was generated merely to cover up the 2G scam. It seems an attempt was made to project it as a bigger scam than 2G. There’s, however, no solid proof for it,” he said.