<p>Seeking to soothe ruffled feathers in the wake of ISRO row, Government today described the scientific community as a national asset that cannot be taken lightly, even as it appeared to soften its stand against the blacklisted four ex-functionaries of the space department.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Responding to queries from reporters, Union Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily referred to the statement of B K Chaturvedi, who along with Roddam Narasimha probed the Antrix-Devas deal, in a section of the press today that there was "no criminality, no misappropriation in that deal".<br /><br />Moily, a former Union Law Minister, said, "Maybe, the (four) scientists would not have followed certain procedures and rules and that's the fault attributed to them".<br /><br />Soon after four former ISRO scientists, including its ex-Chairman G Madhavan Nair, were barred from government jobs based on two official committee reports on the deal, Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy had stoutly defended the decision, saying it's a message to scientists that no wrongdoing by them would tolerated, a statement that drew sharp reactions from scientists.<br /><br />Moily admitted today "..at the same time, I do agree that we will have to treat the scientific community as a national asset and that national asset cannot be taken lightly".<br /><br />He also said there is no proposal before his Ministry to probe the operations of Devas, whose deal with Antrix was scrapped. "No reference has come to the Ministry yet".<br /><br />Moily said when he was Union Law Minister, opinion was given that there are enough grounds to cancel the Antrix-Devas contract.</p>
<p>Seeking to soothe ruffled feathers in the wake of ISRO row, Government today described the scientific community as a national asset that cannot be taken lightly, even as it appeared to soften its stand against the blacklisted four ex-functionaries of the space department.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Responding to queries from reporters, Union Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily referred to the statement of B K Chaturvedi, who along with Roddam Narasimha probed the Antrix-Devas deal, in a section of the press today that there was "no criminality, no misappropriation in that deal".<br /><br />Moily, a former Union Law Minister, said, "Maybe, the (four) scientists would not have followed certain procedures and rules and that's the fault attributed to them".<br /><br />Soon after four former ISRO scientists, including its ex-Chairman G Madhavan Nair, were barred from government jobs based on two official committee reports on the deal, Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy had stoutly defended the decision, saying it's a message to scientists that no wrongdoing by them would tolerated, a statement that drew sharp reactions from scientists.<br /><br />Moily admitted today "..at the same time, I do agree that we will have to treat the scientific community as a national asset and that national asset cannot be taken lightly".<br /><br />He also said there is no proposal before his Ministry to probe the operations of Devas, whose deal with Antrix was scrapped. "No reference has come to the Ministry yet".<br /><br />Moily said when he was Union Law Minister, opinion was given that there are enough grounds to cancel the Antrix-Devas contract.</p>