Modi government has given Padma Bhushan to Nambi Narayan. The real question is did they do any justice for the damage done to him?
Their reparations are not justified for what they did to his life. After destroying a person's life so much, will an award justify all that he lost?
I am not sure who the hypocrites are, Govt or ISRO.
Nambi Narayan was an ISRO scientist who was falsely implicated in espionage charges against him in 1994 by the then Kerala government.
For years he fought against falsehood against him and finally, after 24 years, the SC ruled that compensation needs to be paid to him.
What was his fault that he had to face this much.
It was simple, he was one of the best scientist in the country and someone from the political scene did not want to see him and his work succeed.
His fault was that he introduced the liquid fuel rocket technology in India in the early 1970s, when A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's team was working on solid motors.
His mistake was that he developed the Vikas engine used by several ISRO rockets including the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that took Chandrayaan-1 to the moon.
His mistake was he tried to do something great for the country and science and someone was clearly unhappy with that.
In 1994, he was raided by the Information Bureau and they tried to force him to give false statement against the ISRO top brass.
They tried to him to implicate A. E. Muthunayagam, his boss and then Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC).
When he refused to comply, he was tortured until he collapsed and was hospitalised.
For 48 days, under the central government and Kerala government's order, he was badly tortured by the IB and Kerala police.
He was subjected to repeated third degree. Again and again and again. By the Kerala Police and Intelligence Bureau in the early 1990s. It continued till he couldn't take it anymore.
Only and only because he wanted to do good things for his country and science.
The ISRO, probably under to government's influence, did not openly support him saying that ISRO does not interfere in political matters.
After much torture, the case was transferred to the CBI. The CBI immediately found problems in the case and found that was falsely accused. Not only that, they found that Nambi Narayanan lived in a modest house and had he taken any bribes for selling secrets, that would have been different. But still the case stood there for two years.
In 1996, around the time the central government changed. The CBI was ordered that he was completely innocent.
After he was found not guilty by the CBI, instead of rewarding him and apologizing to him, he and his colleague Sasikala were transferred out of Thiruvananthapuram and were given desk jobs by the Kerala state government.
That's right. Desk jobs for one of the greatest scientist for the country.
Not only that, Kerala government refused to compensate him for torturing him, for decades, until the SC ordered them to pay him Rs. 50 lakh after 24 years of ordeal, which is nothing in front of destroying the career of one of the greatest scientist of India.
To add to that, the top officer involved in the case, Siby Mathews is currently the Chief Information Commissioner in Kerala. Is this how people working against the country are rewarded.
As for Nambi Narayan, he is one of the greatest son of the country and he fully deserves the Padma Bhushan award given to him.