Ex-ISRO chief recalls extraordinary boss

Veteran space scientist K Kasturirangan says he is touched by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s remarkable quality — the way he treated his colleagues and juniors, however “low” they might be, and his personal feeling for them.

He said it was Vajpayee who changed the name of India’s maiden mission to the Moon from ‘Somayaan’ to ‘Chandrayaan-1’, and also made him a Rajya Sabha member.

Kasturirangan said he worked with Vajpayee for four years when he was secretary in the department of space and chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) directly reporting to him. “I used to meet him twice in a month... nice ‘Chai’ and ‘Kachori’ he used to serve to me,” he told PTI.

“...an extraordinary boss who intently heard all your briefings on various progress of space, he would keep some numbers in his mind; it’s remarkable, how much he absorbs when you brief him,” the former ISRO chief recalled.

Kasturirangan recalled when what Vajpayee had said about the renaming of the mission to the Moon.

“I have put one (Chandrayaan-1) also there because India is a big country, very prosperous, growing, developing, how can we have only one mission for a planetary programme? It has to be a series, so it’s Chandrayaan-1,” he quoted Vajpayee as having told him.

Kasturirangan added that Vajpayee chose to let him continue in the position till the age of 62, saying “you (Kasturirangan) are young and doing well.”

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