New Delhi: The government’s principal scientific advisor (PSA) Ajay Kumar Sood replied to an anguished letter by 26 eminent scientists on Tuesday (September 17). The scientists’ letter, written on August 30, asked if their colleagues were dropped from the final list of the recipients of an award in spite of the recommendations of a government-constituted expert committee.
While Sood said the final list was prepared according to the ‘rules’, he did not address the issue of whether the names were indeed omitted – the principal question that the scientists had asked in their letter.
Referring to media reports, the scientists had asked Sood if some names were deleted after a committee he chaired had recommended them for the Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award, which is one of the categories of the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar.
It is given to “recognise and encourage young scientists who made an exceptional contribution in any field of science and technology”.
There were two scientists who did not find their names in the final list, sources said – Bengaluru-based Suvrat Raju of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and Prateek Sharma of the Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
As The Wire had reported, at least one of them had been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government on several occasions. Another scientist had voiced his support in favour of a movement that questioned the government’s stance on human rights.
Sood’s reply said: “With reference to your letter dated August 30, 2024, the selection process followed for the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar is as per on the MHA website //awards.gov.in/Home/Awardpedia#Selection.
“As mentioned under the selection process, the RVPC [Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Committee] recommends the names to the Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Government of India,” he added.
Sood stressed in his reply that per the rules as mentioned on the awards’ government website, the committee recommends names to the minister of science and technology.
The website lists three rules as of now:
- “All nominations received for the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar awards shall be placed before the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Committee (RVPC) constituted by the Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology every year.”
- “The committee shall be constituted every year.”
- “The RVPC will recommend the names to the Honourable Minister of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.”
The third rule was not listed on the website before the awards were announced this year. Thus, before the insertion of the third rule, the science and technology minister had no stated role in the decision of the winners once the RVPC had finalised the names.
The names of the recipients of this year’s award were announced on August 7, 2024.
The Wire found a PDF copy of the changed set of rules, which introduced the addition of rule 3, on the website of the Homi Bhabha National Institute by way of the Wayback Machine.
These rules were cached on August 10, 2024.
By August 10, it was clear among academic circles – and to the government – that the deleted names had been accidentally ‘leaked’ by an RVPC committee member, thus sparking rumours of whether the deletions were made at the “ministerial level”.
The ‘leak’ happened as the member in question reportedly sent a congratulatory message to a scientist on the morning of August 7. That evening, when the awards were announced in public, the scientist’s name was not among those in the final list of awardees.
The amended rules finally appeared on the government website, which the scientific advisor referred to in his reply, on September 16 – after the awards were announced.
One of the 26 signatories to the letter, on condition of anonymity, said to The Wire, “The PSA, by making a mention of rules, which were amended surreptitiously, makes it clear that it was the minister who finally decided the winners, overriding the RVPC decision – something we had feared, and had asked about in our letter.
“This reply, though, raises more questions than answers. On what grounds did the science and technology minister have the last say [in awardee selection]? We now know that the amendment [that introduced the minister’s role in awardee selection] seems to have been inserted on the website after the awards were announced,” he said.
Apart from this technical aspect, there is also an aspect of principle, he added.
“As we had asked in our letter, the government has to make it clear as to why the names were deleted. Did it have any adverse reports [about the scientists whose names were deleted] – on work ethics or otherwise – that it considered dropping the names?” he asked.
Another signatory said this can have far-fetched implications. “There can be repetition of this precedent,” he said. “What if this extends to the acceptance of grants for research work? Or even to the faculty [members] hiring?” he said.
The scientist also said that those who were denied awards after the RVPC’s recommendation belonged to institutions of high repute like the TIFR and IISc.
“If this can happen with scientists working with such institutions, we fear what could happen with those working with others.”
Both scientists quoted above preferred anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media, in a professional or personal capacity, by the institutions they work with.
Both said there was no decision yet on whether there would be a response to Sood’s letter.
The signatories – all of them past awardees of the coveted Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar award – include Siva Athreya, Indranil Biswas, Vivek Borkar, Atish Dabholkar, Sumit Das, Abhishek Dhar, Deepak Dhar, Anish Ghosh, Rajesh Gopakumar, Amitabh Joshi, Nissim Kanekar, Mahan Mj, Satyajit Mayor, Shiraz Minwalla, Sunil Mukhi, Jaikumar Radhakrishnan, M.S. Raghunathan, Sujatha Ramdorai, Madan Rao, Deb Shankar Ray, Srikanth Sastry, Ashoke Sen, Krishnendu Sengupta, Shubha Tole, Sandip Trivedi and Vidita Vaidya.