Current ISRO chief S Somanath has recently postponed publication of his autobiography.
Some controversial comments about his predecessor K Sivan have surfaced. After that he said that he no longer wants to publish this autobiography.
In recent times, the success of ISRO chairman Somanath has caught the attention of the whole country. India managed to send a spaceship to the moon under his leadership in the third attempt.
Earlier, India tried to send Chandrayaan-2 to the moon in 2019. But ISRO’s attempt failed at that time. Chandrayaan-2 crashed while approaching. Chandrayaan-3’s lander Vikram landed near the Moon’s South Pole. Vikram and rover Pragyan were active there for more than 10 days. They have observed the soil of the moon in detail. Later, when the night falls on the moon. It is considered to be ISRO’s biggest achievement in recent times. Because before India no country could go to the south pole of the moon before. Even Russian efforts have often failed at the same time.
•WHY ?
Autobiography that has come to close has targeted K Sivan, the former chairman of ISRO and the director of Chandrayaan 2 (Chandrayan 2) mission. S Somanath has brought out the secret information related to Chandrayaan-2. Besides, criticism of the former chairman has also been included. As soon as it came out, there was a storm of controversy. Finally, S. Somnath had to postpone the publication of the book.
•CONTEXT
The autobiography was written to inspire talented people to face the challenges they may face in their career.
According to a report of Malayala Manorama, Somanath in his autobiography emphasized the need for transparency after a mission failure. He also pointed out that several unnecessary changes were made to the ‘Chandrayaan 2’ mission ( 2019), which was launched during the chairmanship of Sivan’s predecessor AS Kiran Kumar, and that the mission was threatened by too much publicity.
•EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS
After retirement of A.s Kiran Kumar (2018)The names of K Sivan and S Somnath had reached to become head of the ISRO. At that time Shivan was due to retire but his tenure was extended and he was made ISRO chief. S Somnath discussed in his book that even after K Sivan became ISRO chief, k sivan did not leave the post of Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre even after becoming chief. Somnath wanted himself to become the director of Sarabhai Space Center but K Sivan refused to resign. Somnath was made director after six months
following the intervention of Dr B N Suresh, the former director of the space centre.
Like all sectors, there is a lot of politics involved here in ISRO too. Somnath’s autobiography sought to highlight the intricacies of promotion within ISRO, which would be valuable to any student planning their career.
•About ‘chandrayaan 2’ mission
Somnath also complained that the ‘ Chandrayaan 2 mission failed because of Shivan’s haste. He had previously warned that if the landing is done in a hurry, the lander will break and crumble when it touches the moon’s soil. But that was not heard. He wrote that the Chandrayaan-2 mission failed due to hurry. According to Somanath, Before the launch of Chandrayaan-2, as many times as necessary, some tests were not done. Due to software glitch it could not land on the Moon. He also claimed that when Prime Minister Modi arrived at the time of Chandrayaan 2 landing, he was not allowed to meet him.After the failure of Chandrayaan-2, several technological upgrades were made to address these mistakes in Chandrayaan – 3 mission.
A storm of controversy has started on this issue. It is considered that this is the reason why he had to stop publishing his memoir.
He informed ‘The Hindu’ that the matter is being wrongly presented somewhere.
“I have not said anywhere that Mr. Sivan prevented me from becoming the chairman. What I want to say is that being a member of the Space Commission means moving towards becoming (Chairman of ISRO). But bringing in another director (ISRO Centre) would mean reducing my chances as (Chairmanship),Moreover, my book has not been officially published. Some copies were published. But amid all these controversies, I am postponing the publication. S. Somnath said.” He stated.
When the former ISRO chairman was asked about this, Sivan replied that he had not seen what ISRO chairman Somnath had written about him in Somanath’s autobiography and had nothing to say about it.
