Two persons with whom this reporter makes enquiries do not know where he lives. They have all forgotten him.
Fortunately, the gate proudly wears a name board: ‘S. Nambinarayanan.’ He sits on a sofa in his dim lit drawing room, cool and detached. The news about the verdict of a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court ordering the State to pay him an interim immediate relief of Rs.10 lakh for defaming him with the infamous ISRO spy scandal case, mixing sex and international espionage, has just hit the screens of television channels. But, his television is switched off.
A crew from a channel too is immediately in. He tells the young television reporter what it is all about. “I was arrested, charged in the ISRO spy scandal case on November 30, 1994.” He remembers all the dates. “The court freed me of the charges on April 29, 1998.”
“The National Human Rights Commission ordered payment of compensation of Rs.1 crore to me in March, 2001, of which Rs.10 lakh was to be paid immediately. The State does not want to admit they have falsely done it to me. So the fight continues,” he says.
“Do you think someone has conspired?” asks the reporter. He smiles, as though at his grandson. “Those things happened 18 years ago. You were a child then. The compensation award came 12 years ago. The expression used was ‘to pay an immediate interim relief of Rs.10 lakh.’ So the word ‘immediate’ means 12 years up to the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court.”
He says he knows the case will now go to the Supreme Court. “That is how it is,” he says.
“What you have to do, you have to do. There was a time when I was shattered. My professional life as a good ISRO scientist was shattered. My personal life was shattered. My wife had problems.”
He does not elaborate, but the day he was arrested there was a big crowd at his gates and people were pushing to break the police cordon and throwing punches at him as he was being taken to the police jeep. “I have written all that in my book. It is in the manuscript stage,” he says.
“Whatever one does in life is a repetition of what one has done several times in one’s life. The character never changes. You may not understand it, but you will be doing the same things again and again.”
“My life had two stages so far. I was a scientist. The only thing then was the profession. My career suddenly came to an end, and from then on this is what I do. We don’t choose…and we don’t back out either… It is not the compensation. We don’t buckle,” he says.
Keywords: Nambinarayanan, former ISRO scientist, National Human Rights Commission, illegal police custody, 1994 espionage case
What a shame! Indian government should apologize for insulting a scientist who has spent decades working for ISRO projects. It is demoralizing to see how an esteemed scientist is treated.
Generally all rules are framed by our elders with a broadminded approach and oflate it is frequent,that charges and litigation become innumerable in every field and sometimes on oral advices the slavery subordinates pressurise the events like issuing chargesheets, and imposing penalties and marking advese remarks in service records and most of the time the receiver end is from Group iii or a Group ii promotive candidates, in which he is helpless than to approach consumer court which at the most delays the hardearned benefits and all these confusions because of most inexperienced and upstarts given chance to occupy the seats with seal and power,leave alone the politics they impose on the sub ordinates.
He has been denied justice on two tokens.One for simply
incriminating him in the case ,a very big folly for ?political
reasons at the time ,Second for denying him at least the
compensation that a normal human being should get let alone he was
a nation loving scientist.Sad this is the state of affairs of our
system and the Judiciary .
With due respect to all the comments & your article, I wish to state NambiNarayanan need not be all that great. Quite a few of NambiNarayanan's colleagues at ISRO who know him very well have completely diiferent views of him. Many articles that appear in our media are hardly accurate. I think this article is no exception.
It is a sad state of affairs. It is disastrous when judiciary take so long for passing judgement. Where the general public can go to get their grievances redressed? Where there is no safety and security to the citizens, what's is the meaning of democracy? Why people are electing the parliamentarians?
It appears all are after accumulating money only
We are not hearing anything from the sermonizing CJI regarding the
delays? What about the former justice looking after the media "freedom"?
His countenence speaks volumes. Saintly and clear eyes. Namaskarams to you Saint.
We understand the agony and abasement.Our apologies to you Sir!
Right people like Mr. Nambi should expose the facts and its upto the masses to believe it or
not. Not telling, what really happened is just helping his evil doers cause.
After 12 years the court ordered to give 10 lakh as an immediate interim relief. So, how long he has to wait until he finally receive the complete justice? If he was acquitted, then what is the delay in compensating? The snail-like decision making process itself is one of the reasons of increasing criminality and corruption in our country. Who has trust in our judiciary? Who want to fight in the court for decades and may/may not get justice? Time has exceeded to make our judicial system faster.
Thanks for the article. Nothing can give back what he has lost, or
compensate the torture, he has undergone.Nambinarayanan's utterance,
reactions indicate, his greatness. Never openly blamed anybody,
replying in a gentle way, not showing bitterness, it is not possible
for all. He was one of the leading lights of ISRO, till this
incidence. His position, rise, achievements could have been different,
if this incident was not there. The support from fellow scientist's /
organisation was nil, even for a low grade worker, even if the mistake
was on his side, lot of solidiarity / support would have been there
from trade unions and fellow workers. That was the plight of
Scientists in India, who have taken ISRO to sky high - all self
serving, selfish , cowardish people - I am sorry - Espionage, is such
a terrorising word. Engineers and scientists were living on islands
thinking only about their task, not knowing world's way of life -
atleast those days. Who remembers and who cares?
I hope the government will have the decency to compensate Mr Nambinarayanan
immediately, not just to the tune of the interim award but the entire compensation of Rs 1
crore awarded. A grevious harm was done to him and nothing can make up for the loss of
his and his family's peace of mind, career and so much else. Its a great shame that such a
miscarriage of justice occurred and then that the man has had to run from pillar to post for
compensation. They ought to probe why this happened and punish the guilty.
Thank you so much "The Hindu" for publishing this article and enriching the reader with the life experiences of a great personality, Mr. S.Nambinarayanan.
It was a gross miscarriage of justice when Dr. Nambi Narayan, an eminent ISRO scientist was reduced to the status of a common criminal.Can any amount of money compensate for the agony that he has gone through for no fault of his?
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