Letter to the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India
Open Letter | 24 September 2024
Dear Prof. Sood,
We, the undersigned, have come across the media reports about the letter (appended here) sent to you by 26 prominent academics who also happen to be Bhatnagar awardees themselves, expressing concerns regarding the matters surrounding Vigyan Yuva SSB awards for the year 2024. Additionally, it has come to our notice that subsequent to this letter, the government has updated the selection criteria on its portal and the new version uploaded in the last couple of days adds a line that the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar Committee (RVPC), chaired by you, submits its recommendations to the minister of Science and Technology. We have also been informed that you have now sent a response to the letter referred above, which apparently doesn’t answer the main questions raised, but essentially only points to the modified webpage and the new line that has been now added to the selection process.
In this connection, we would like to bring the following points to your notice:
a) First and foremost, we are in agreement with the spirit, intent and the text of the letter sent by 26 of our colleagues. We agree with them that the procedures and criteria for determining Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskars should be, and seen to be fully fair, transparent and free of extraneous considerations.
b) The changes made to the awards portal recently, and your response drawing attention to those specific changes, seem consistent with the impression we got from the media reports that the list of names declared as the award winners is not the same as the list recommended by RVPC. This is indeed shocking . We request you to let us know the criteria for choosing award winners, and the reasons for possible exclusions of any names that have been recommended by RVPC.
c) This added point in the selection process is also intriguing as it is common knowledge that the Rashtriya Vigyan Awards (or their previous avatars) are conferred by the honourable President, and hence RVPC (or its previous avatar) can only ‘recommend’ the names to the President’s or PM’s office through proper channels. Therefore, this aspect of the process is not new at all. What is new however, is names getting dropped at the discretion of the minister – something that has been unheard of for all these years.
d) We are worried that your response indicates that the selection of awards henceforth will also involve non-academic considerations. This is a rather unhealthy development for Indian science. The processes involved in the various forms of recognition of good science in India needed to become more transparent and accountable, rather than less.
e) Going further, we are very concerned that this issue is much larger than a few awards. In future, this will set a precedent for ministers to use unrestricted vetoes to overrule any recommendations of expert committees. Academics disliked by the government for any reason may be sidelined from not just awards, but also scientific grants, recruitments, promotions, etc. This trend not only goes against basic tenets of science practice, but will also impede the development of scientific research in this country. We strongly feel that being an eminent researcher and scientist yourself, you would appreciate our sentiments, and our misgivings about this matter. Moreover, as you hold the office of PSA to the GoI, we feel that we ought to convey our fears to you.
We sincerely hope that you would be able to assuage our concerns, and assure the wider scientific community that you would demonstrate the leadership you are known for, and take concrete steps to address these serious issues.