Nambi Narayanan row: The Caravan is up to its old tricks again

The Caravan seems to be dealing with the bankruptcy of ideas. It was evident when they did a shoddy job against B. S. Yediyurappa. It was evident when they allegedly published a defamatory article against Vivek Doval, the son of NSA Ajit Doval. They are known for creating fake news and believe, they do it the best in the market. Now, Caravan is back to its old trick again as it attempts to slander ex-ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan once again.

The Caravan’s shoddy job against Nambi Narayanan

The whole nation apologised to Nambi Narayan after R Madhavan starrer‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’ was released at the box office. The film depicted the story of the scientist Nambi Narayanan and his painful journey. The film turned out to be a massive success but still, it was subjected to criticism only because it displayed the truth as it is.

Replug | “Have you seen Nambi?” Sasikumaran asked @nileenams.
“Nambi looks like a European with his long beard and like Einstein and all.” He added, “He is, however, a kallan”—loosely translated as thief or someone driven by extreme self-interest: https://t.co/pL7hkQnaGP pic.twitter.com/75oE7RuvVx
— The Caravan (@thecaravanindia) July 31, 2022

The film didn’t really suit the agenda of leftist portals and this is why they published motivated reviews against the film. The Caravan is no exception. The film seems to have not gone well with ‘The Caravan’ too. The left propaganda portal Caravan, thus, chose to replug its article from the magazine’s November 2020 edition that projected Narayanan as a spy who sold Indian secrets to foreigners.

Caravan, in a way, tried to once again begin the discussion around allegations of espionage against the ISRO scientist which, in fact, have no basis in reality. While it is the Intelligence Bureau and Kerala Police which should come under question, the Caravan had some other plans to demean Nambi Narayanan.

The Caravan casts aspersions on CBI probe

Caravan tried running subtle propaganda around the entire CBI probe as it found Nambi Narayanan innocent. The article also tried to frame Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao accusing him of scampering the CBI probe.

The article published by Caravan aims at only one thing; to portray Nambi Narayanan as guilty in the ISRO espionage case. The media portal maligns his image and criticises his entire professional career in ISRO. Not once, not twice but the article repeatedly attempts to make people believe that Narayanan was incompetent as a scientist as if he did not contribute to ISRO even once throughout his career.

But why has ‘The Caravan’ replugged its old article now? You see, Narayanan has been proven innocent by every apex organisation. From the CBI probe to the Supreme Court and even by the National Human Rights Commission, Narayanan has been proven vindicated. So, The Caravan decided to bring up these allegations to humiliate a scientist who should be honoured for his sacrifices and contribution to India’s development in space. Mind you, it was last year when the Supreme Court-appointed committee noted that Kerala Police framed Narayanan and others in the ISRO espionage case last year. Moreover, FIR was lodged against 18 Kerala Police officers on the basis of the committee’s report.

Nambi Narayanan and ISRO espionage case

The case started in 1994, when the Kerala police arrested Narayanan, on the charges of supplying secret information to Pakistan through Maldivian operatives. Later it was revealed that the whole spy story was fabricated by the A K Antony faction of Kerala Congress (with the help of senior police officials), who was trying to settle political scores with Kannoth Karunakaran, the then Congress chief minister of Kerala.

Antony was made chief minister of the state, but the Congress party lost the next assembly election, and CPM led LDF government came to power.

In the meantime, CBI submitted the closure report in a special court in Kochi, in which Narayanan was given clean chit. However, the newly-elected LDF government withdrew the consent given to CBI to probe the case and decided to ‘reinvestigate’ the whole matter, and the case was again given to politicized Kerala police.

In January 1996, the CBI moved Supreme Court against state government’s decision to reinvestigate the case, and the apex court quashed the Kerala government’s order for reinvestigation in 1998. Finally, the apex court ordered the government to compensate 50 lakhs rupees to Narayanan, and the Modi government recognized his contributions by awarding Padma Bhushan in 2019.

Recently, his journey was displayed in the movie titled ‘Rocketry’. The whole nation came to know about the truth of how a false case was fabricated against Narayanan. But Caravan, being a leftist media portal, still does not seem to have understood the truth about Nambi Narayanan and is hell-bent on projecting him as the guilty.