Without a Head, What Happens to an Organization?
The ecosystem starts becoming derailed, and if it is not looked into timely, it may collapse one fine day.
Since the last 93 days, DRDO has been nose-diving day by day.
Every day, an incompetent group of corporate DGs is making their own rules and raising files for their own benefits.
When they see an opportunity for a DS post, they direct it to the Director, RAC, Mr. RP Pandey, who was planted by DG HR. How did he manage to ensure that the 8th-ranked seniority officer, Parteek Kishor, became the Chairman of the selection committee for Director RAC and selected Pande from his own cluster while avoiding Atul Dev, who was waiting in the queue for Director RAC.
The whole DRDO knows about these manipulations. This happened because the entire match-fixing was done by the same manipulation-oriented group.
This parachuted RAC Director raised a file for four DS posts and, interestingly, without knowing the meaning of DS (Distinguished Scientist)—an elite researcher who is widely recognized for major career achievements, leadership, and groundbreaking discoveries in their academic or industrial field.
Out of four:
1. Mayank Diwedi, DG HR MSc, 56% in Organic Chemistry, with no criteria matching the above definition. No major international papers, and even the experience certificates were reportedly not verified at the time of his mysterious selection as Scientist C in RCI.
31 number in the DS seniority list.
2. J. R. Joshi, DG BrahMos His selection is also entangled in a legal case and is serving under a High Court stay. His claims of being a “best scientist” have already been nullified by the CAT, and his plea was quashed. His other qualities also do not appear to fit the definition of a Distinguished Scientist.
40 number in the DS seniority list.
3. Ravindra Singh, DG (R&M) He is a DRDO Facebook guy.
Why is it that if you search for any DRDO scientist, their name is associated with IITs, universities, research papers, conferences, etc.? This man has Facebook posts or DRDO Twitter posts, with several occasions involving political presence. So, you can imagine his frog-like growth in DRDO.
34 number in the DS seniority list.
4th name is a senior scientist from the list of first 8 names in the seniority list, apparently only to justify that their corporate group has left 25% for the real scientists while they are willing to get the remaining “butter” with the help of bureaucrats and political allies. Sitting in Delhi, they can easily bluff them by portraying achievements that actually came from various DRDO Labs.
The GOI constituted the Raghavan Committee to restructure DRDO and make it more productive. Unfortunately, even before the committee’s recommendations could be implemented, a group of corporate-minded DGs and directors appears to be building strongholds within DRDO, enabling them to run the organization in their own way.
Hope DS List will be recommended from MoD, ACC in the basis of Scientific Contribution and achievements.
The time has come for the responsible authorities to look beyond files, designations, and internal networks and ask the most important question:
Are we rewarding scientific excellence—or rewarding proximity to power?
DRDO cannot afford to lose its scientific soul.
India needs a DRDO where merit speaks louder than influence, science speaks louder than politics, and national interest stands above every individual interest.
JAI HIND