Why Indian scientists raise concern about political meddling

Scientists in India have raised concerns about the government’s creeping “ideological control” on the science community, asking politicians and bureaucrats if they are doling out coveted prizes on the basis of “unfair non-scientific considerations”.

In a letter to India’s principal scientific adviser on August 30, as many as 26 Indian scientists of repute demanded that the government come clean on why it changed the recommended list of the prestigious Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award recipients.

The scientists told news outlet Scroll that the change was a departure from tradition. Previously, the government always followed the recommendations made by an expert panel of scientists since the award was instituted in 1958.

“One of the scientists whose name is believed to have been dropped from the list is a vocal critic of [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi-led government,” the article quoted a scientist as saying.

The third consecutive electoral victory of a coalition led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in power since 2014, made many Indian scientists wary of “creeping authoritarianism” amid rising political interference in appointments and corruption.

India has made major advances in science and technology over the past few decades, emerging as a global player in space exploration, biotechnology and information technology.

Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), a decades-old network of 23 world-class engineering colleges in India, have produced a constant stream of top-notch science graduates who have contributed to scientific advancements at home and abroad.

Not just a name change

The Vigyan Yuva Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award is the renamed version of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award—India’s “most prestigious science award” given in the fields of biological sciences, chemical sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences, medical sciences, engineering sciences and earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences.

The unusual interference by the government in choosing the science prize winners follows a procedural change that brought in bureaucrats as part of the selection committee.

Furthermore, the new procedure lets the science and technology minister make the final approval.

Scroll published screenshots from a government website showing the selection process was tweaked only recently, allowing the minister to make the final call on science prize winners.

According to one physicist interviewed by the publication, the recommendations by the expert panel were sent to the science and technology ministry “only for rubber stamps” until last year.

But two of the three names recommended by the expert panel for physical sciences were dropped this year.

“Now that we know that two names [in the physics category] have been dropped from the recommended list of awardees, it raises the question whether the minister… overrode the recommendations made by the selection panel,” the physicist said, equating the bureaucratic overreach to the king of Sweden potentially rejecting a Nobel Prize recommendation.

Another scientist who signed the August 30 letter told the news website that the procedural change showed the government sought to impose “ideological control” on the science community—something that would be “detrimental to Indian sciences”.

India has made notable achievements in science and technology despite a pitiful investment in research and development.

World Bank data shows its funding for scientific research is equal to only 0.65 percent of its GDP, which is significantly lower than that of China (2.4 percent), United States (3.4 percent) and South Korea (4.9 percent).

But despite a low investment by the government, India launched in 2008 its first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, which played a crucial role in discovering water molecules on the moon’s surface.

Another crowning achievement of India’s scientific community was Mangalyaan, the country’s first interplanetary mission to Mars launched in 2013. With a budget of only $74 million, the Mars Orbiter Mission has been one of the cheapest Mars missions ever.