Top Indian space scientist quits over blacklisting

BANGALORE: A top Indian scientist said Saturday he had resigned from the nation's Space Commission to protest the government's blacklisting of four scientists over alleged irregularities in a satellite deal.

The resignation by Roddam Narasimha, 78, from the highest space policy-making body in India is the latest development in a controversy that has rocked the top echelons of the country's scientific establishment.

Narasimha, who sent his resignation to Premier Manmohan Singh, said the treatment of the scientists could "demoralise" the nation's scientific community.

"I have requested the prime minister to permit me to relinquish my membership of the Space Commission," Narasimha, the longest-serving aerospace scientist on the commission, said in a statement.

The Space Commission directs the nation's space programmes and monitors projects of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that have included the 2008 landing of a lunar probe on the moon's surface.

Narasimha objected to the treatment of the four scientists barred last month from holding any government office.

The government took the action against the scientists in connection with a 2005 deal between ISRO's commercial wing, Antrix Corp, and a private company, Devas Multimedia, to lease satellite radio wave space. (AFP)