Lack of Accountability in ISRO

ISRO Days – Lack of Accountability

When I think of ISRO days generally I feel happy, proud , satisfied and my face gets lit by a  smile. I will write about it separately . Occasionally this mood is punctured by sadness and even anger. I want to reflect on this. Many names appear in this note and that is why I hesitated a lot . Since I do not expect this to be read by some people who could be hurt I take liberties.  Many of the people ( almost all ) that I criticize here are my friends still and I have really nice memories of interaction with them . To some I owe a lot.

It might appear as cranky, asinine , arrogant and even one could think that I have lost my marbles ( for JTG : "Do men who have got all their marbles go swimming in lakes with their clothes on?" (PG Wodehouse's Cocktail Time, 1958);   Worse, if this were to be read by someone I know, he /she would be smiling sarcastically recalling my weaknesses and deficiencies in my personality and failings in action. It is also possible that I am unsympathetic and harsh in my evaluations. I recall  what once Prof Durvasula, my guide , told me about some one .  ‘ He has Dirac Delta Function approach ‘.          1 for himself and 0 for everyone else . ( δ = 1 at x=0 and δ = 0 for all x # 0 ). Even this did not have the sobering effect on me. So read on …

There are four categories of people that I recognised even then . First group  lacked accountability. You could take no action whatsoever against them. No stick nor any carrot. For them it was a job for life. Like a  Tenured professor . One extreme case comes to mind with its own twist of sadness. There was a Ramaswamy who was a draughtsman and his ultimate boss ( 3 /4 levels up ) was Dr Gambhir. Ramaswamy ( what a name , ‘ pitru vaakya paalaka raama ‘ ) did not work following some incidents. He would put up his legs on a chair and sit. That is all. It was whispered  that he used to show respect to only Dr Gambhir by putting his foot down when he was around. Of course no work. If you don’t recognise the irony wait for sometime. After several years he was to be dismissed and he challenged it in a court. He also produced a certificate signed by the then Chairman ( Prof Dhawan ) called  ‘ outstanding performance ‘ citation. Of course this was issued to everyone in  ISAC  after the successful launch of Aryabhat. Nevertheless after a few years Ramaswamy lost his case and job.

I met him a couple of times while he was still in ISAC and talked to him as he was a co-passenger in our bus. He told me that he was a widower and he had a disabled child. He would get up at 4 am and bathe her and cook and give her a breakfast before catching the bus. I told him that he should consider withdrawing the case and perhaps get a reprieve and start working. Even an  average work would do and he should consider that as a sacrifice for the sake of his daughter. Also he was incurring a lot of expenditure because of the case in terms of lawyer’s fee and he had to take leave to attend court proceedings ( where as Administrative officer, Mr Choudhary, would travel in official car and on office time  ) . But Ramswamy while being pleasant with me was not for it. He said that he would go to central minister George Fernandis and complain  ( incidentally the honourable central minister got away from criminal charges of planting bombs etc as Janata Government took over and saved him ). I wonder what happened to Ramaswamy. I also feel sad that we as a group did not try to convince him to withdraw the case.

Dr Gambhir was a man of culture. Polite, courteous , well read and a pleasant man. He had a PhD in Physics ( I think ) and was heading Facilities which included Thermovac, Vibration and shock equipment including shakers etc. I said well read because everyone knew or had noticed his reading. It was hard not to notice as he would be reading all the time in the office – popular books, fiction etc. His office was meticulous and table at once clean. He was the only one I have ever met who was genuinely democratic. He would go to lunch with his male secretary . Both would walk down the long corridor with no conversation whatsoever and stand in the queue and have their lunch in silence and walk back. Once I had to meet him ( I had a good rapport  with him) and went to his office. I had been warned not to enter his chambers ‘ just like that ‘ but send word through his secretary first.  I asked his secretary if Dr Gambhir was free then. He said he was always free and let me in. There he was – relaxed, leaning on his chair and reading a novel. He showed no sign of embarrassment let alone discomfort although I did. He slowly closed the book and smiled and asked me to sit down. After finishing my work I lingered a little. He was in an expansive mood and shared his insights. ಈ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಡುಗರಿಗೆ ಕಮಿಟ್ ಮೆಂಟೇ  ಇಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರಭು ಏನ್ಮಾಡೋದು

; and then later   ಇನ್ಟಲೆಕ್ಚುಯಲ್ಸ್  ಇಲ್ಲವೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. ISAC   ನೇ ನೋಡಿ. ರಾವ್ ಬಿಡಿ ( ಅಂದರೆ ? ) , ರಂಗನ್ ಗೊತ್ತೇ ಇದೆ ,; he appeared genuinely worried.

Some years later I came to know that he has a daughter who is mentally retarded and in fact he told me that he was seriously worried how life would pan out for her when he ( Dr Gambhir  ) and his wife depart. He was making arrangement for his daughter to be enrolled into some kind of home where she could be taken care of will her death  . I felt so heartbroken.

Dr Ramgopal was head of QA. A man with a French beard, well read, serious looking, pleasant . Fortunately I had good relationship with him. He was very friendly and I remember an incident when several of us went to Trivandrum to attend some meeting at VSSC. That night I was literally pulled into a late night movie. I sat next to him and started dozing . He would wake me up every few minutes with remarks – ಪ್ರಭು ಅಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ ಹೀರೋಯಿನ್ ; ಈಗ ಡುಶುಮ್ - ಡುಶುಮ್  ; ಫ್ಯ್ಟಿಂಗು ಮಿಸ್ಸ್ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರಿ  ; It was such a well natured attempt to trouble me that I could only smile. Once he was asked in an interview ( promotion ) if for some  question should he not have known the answer. Ramgopal without flapping an eye said : No, he need not know. It was said that once he failed to make the grade and Prof Rao had to console him. Once while he was travelling with his select colleagues in a van ( office vehicle for a few unlike the rest buswallas ) a question came up. He was teased about American practices of ensuring Quality vs Soviets vs Indians in ISAC. Why the difference , he was repeatedly asked. He said it was because their fucking habits were different.

Strangely he had a son who was retarded and he died in his youth.

Ashiya was head of electronics and was on par or higher than AVPatki .  He was witty, sarcastic , would be really funny if you ignored his malice. He had words to berate everyone . ( I recall Khuswant Singh’s column ‘ Malice towards One and  All ‘ ) . He had the uncanny ability to fish out cigarettes from any one who had. He would walk in to Dasgupta’s room and pull out the drawer and take out one. Dasgupta was not an exception. His favourite routine was to take a stroll to different buildings , meet some one, smoke a cigarette or two, chit chat and crack some jokes and leave. Unfortunately he was a small and mean and cruel person. He once said ( recall Prof Rao’s penchant for spotlight ) that if he ( Prof ) sees some one dead and people eulogising that person , he would feel envious and would wish that he were dead too to get into spot light !

He died of shock on hearing his daughter’s wedding / involvement with a boy of different caste or religion.

Patki was ( is ) a thorough gentleman. He treats everyone equally. Has no false sense of status . He is rational ,honest and compassionate , intelligent , witty and a very good designer. Excellent communicator when in the mood .  He has enormous capacity and capability to interrupt conversation continuously. Sometimes I wonder if it was not one of the reasons why he could not get along with Prof Rao ( you see Prof Rao also wanted to talk and not listen ). You might say the same thing about me !

His humour and wit : He once told Bhat that he is not sure if time of birth is important or not but he is certain that place of birth is ( Bhat and Prof Rao – although Bhat got nothing out of turn. He deserved more ) . On another occasion : Bhat and Radhakrishna were selected to be the possible astronauts to fly on Shuttle and were relieved of technical duties and were getting trained. AVP said it reminded him of temple bulls ( ‘ ದೇವರಿಗೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟ ಗೂಳಿ   ‘ ) roaming around the village and free to indulge in any pleasure without any restriction !  About one Thermal manager he said that he suffers from both inferiority and superiority complex .

 I , like many , would avoid him if I were in a hurry as it could mean an hour or more of time spent. Excellent to spend if you had time.

I said he treated everyone equally . It was his strength and a great weakness. Even recently while talking about Razak and Kulks ( in a party where they were also present ) he said how they did not get enough credit for what work they did. I tried to detect some humour in it. I could not. I cast a furtive glance at Dasgupta and he was impassive. Bhat grumbled – ‘ I could never get any work done by them ‘. AVP later said how MKP struggled ( true ) to finish his PhD because Prof Suryanarayan would not give him enough time ! In general the theme was how everyone in Structures was great or nearly so. Structures was filled with great people , martyrs , hard working and intelligent people often wronged by everyone else.

AVP was liked immensely by everyone in Structures group and on equal measure disliked by many ( practically everyone ) outside. His rationality, fairness, logic all left him when he had to deal with others. Looking back I feel he was insecure and perhaps suffered from an inferiority complex. These were covered by a show of unwanted aggression, moodiness, reluctance to discuss and debate any point. Sometimes this behaviour would be copied by many ( of us )  with disastrous effects.  He had many good ideas but he would discuss them with inconsequent people . He felt much more comfortable with people inferior to him ( not status though ) in intellect, understanding or capability. He had contempt nay derision for Integration particularly Mechanical although they were doing similar work such as Ananda Murthy, Shirolikar and others were doing.

I have a great fondness and respect for AVP as a person but professionally I had no great opinion. It was because – straight  , simple but sad truth – he was lazy. He indirectly made many lazy. Hard work was not respected . He had no time to think about the  future of the group let alone of the organisation, no time to plan current activities , no time to review people or their work , no willingness  to cooperate with any one. He was opposite of what Dharmaraya was supposed to have been  ( ‘ ಅಜಾತ ಶತ್ರು ‘ ). He created enemies ( outside his clan of Structures ) of friends. One PPEG person (very sharp, sincere and capable , MBA from IIM , Ahmedabad  )  told me that he invariably got depressed after meeting Patki.

He was opposite of Dr Nair. I could  not form any meaningful relationship with Nair ( not because of rivalry as some thought ) because there were many traits in him that I disliked and perhaps vice versa. But I have a great professional respect for him. In some situations , say we are sailing on a river in spate ,capability matters and not goodness.

Dr MKP : I have had excellent relationship with him all along. Jovial, pleasant, polite, kind human being. Smart  in some aspects. Tendency to adapt ‘ short cuts ‘ to success. In the meeting we had he was explaining what happened when he was Vice Chancellor of a university. He went to check how evaluation of papers is done. It was done in a great hurry and he said that about 2 – 3 minutes were spent on an answer paper. He picked up one and found out, comparing it with master answer paper ,that it was evaluated poorly . The student was given 37 marks or something. When he pointed it the evaluator gave him 70 + marks. So far so good. MKP also explained how re -evaluation is a fraud etc. It was an interesting, inside information at once juicy and one can put it down to our system ( nodi hyagide category ). All that is fine. What did the VC do ? Nothing !

I have heard many such stories from him not only as VC but in his earlier avatars as Executive assistant ( or equivalent ) to Dr Kota in ADA. But I never got any clarity about what he did. That troubles me a lot.

His PHD days : I was his co- guide. He did not understand anything although the problem was simple. He wrote nothing , programmed nothing ( Bhate did ) and got PhD . He published not a single paper. Completely undeserving.

Dr TSK : Again I owe him a lot. He was very sincere in his work in structures though not very capable. He would be honest about his work, capabilities and would not cut corners. I gave him or approved only average grades to him.

But his PhD was a disaster. Problem was difficult and his guide at IISc , Prof Shrinivasa , was too mathematical. TSK simply could not handle it. It was way beyond him. Ramki was the one to program and get results and we ( Ramki and I ) would interpret. Again no publication whatsoever.

I question myself and am left with guilt. I helped them to get their PhD s but was it correct on my part ? Sometimes I have reasoned that I helped my friends. But lately I have come to a firm conclusion that I was wrong. Guilt remains.

Now let me come to operative part. As I said earlier , there were four categories of people.

One : they were not sincere, not working and not capable. Razak , Kulks , Samuel , Shenoy ( IRS core team ). They should have been dismissed.

Two : they were capable but not sincere, not working . AVP, Col Pant ( director ;  they said in Insat reviews in Palo Alto he used to open his mouth only to eat biscuits ) , Arvamudhan ( director ; very prompt in going home ) , Dr Kosta ( joker ) , ASPrakash Rao ( fossilized ) , Ashiya , Dr Ramgopal , Dr Gambhir , Dr Srinatha ( that man from Swansea ) ,  MKP , Seshadri of facilities , Srikanth ( known and known only for asking tricky questions in interviews and questions  collected solely to humiliate someone ) , Dr Patnaik who was sent to Insat and came back to ditch ISRO ---- I would warn them ; try to put fear of God into them and failing any improvements dismiss them.

Three : capability medium but sincere and hard working ;  Kannan, TSK , Ananda Murthy, Shirolikar, Dasgupta , Mohammud , George , MN Satya , Krishna --- I have a lot of respect for their work and their sincerity. They needed to be preserved , trained and motivated. 

Four : Highly capable and also extremely sincere and hard working ; Dr Nair,  Ramki , Dr Bonde, Dr MSR, JTG , Dr MGC , Goel, Dr Reddy, NCBhat ( a push once in a while to motivate ) , Dr Jayaraman , Sridhar Moorthy ,  Venkat Rao of Integration as well as IRS core team , myself --  I would value them immensely and  promote them ( not necessarily in grade but to handle more responsibilities ).

I would have made JTG head of Analysis within a year or two; Dr Nair as head of all Rocket Technology developments or Group Head ( Str, Thermal, Mechanism ) , Bonde as Str head, MSR for all developments , or vice versa , Krishna to head CAD , Dasgupta for all fabrication of ISAC , myself sent for training so as to become Project Director soon   and so on . Names and positions are only indicative and I want to show the intent. The tragedy was that  there were so many capable people willing to shoulder responsibilities. We missed it all.

The point is that there were no exit paths for people. No accountability.