Bangalore/Chennai, Jan 26 (IANS): Even as the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) maintained discreet silence, space scientists in this tech hub Wednesday expressed shock and dismay at the outburst of its former chairman G. Madhavan Nair over the nixed Antrix-Devas spectrum deal.

"Nair's remarks are not only critical, but also unfortunate. We are not in a position to react as we are not privy to the nitty-gritty of the Devas deal, as it was handled by Antrix (the commercial arm of ISRO). We have to wait and see what impact Nair's sweeping observations will have on the organisation," a senior scientist told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Along with Nair, three other scientists, former scientific secretary A. Bhaskarnarayana, former satellite centre director K.N. Shankara and former Antrix executive director K.R. Sridharamurthi, have been barred from holding any government position or being on official committees over the deal ISRO's commercial arm Antrix signed with Devas for allotting the

While Nair, 69, minced no words in severely criticising his successor K. Radhakrishnan at the space agency, the other three noted scientists were guarded in commenting on the raging controversy over the multi-billion rupee deal that was annulled last year.

Sridharamurthi, who was in-charge of Antrix when the Devas deal was signed, said he would first seek clarifications from the space agency before reacting off-hand.

"As I have moved away from ISRO after superannuation and have been associated with other state-run projects, I have not been keeping track of the developments. I am yet to study the order. I need to find out what are the issues and reasons for the order," an upset Sridharamurthi told IANS.

Similarly, Bhaskarnarayana said it was too early to comment as he had learnt about the developments only today.

"Whatever job was assigned to me, I did to the best of my ability. I don't think I have done any wrong. It is too early to react without facts at hand. Yes, it hurts to know that I have been punished for no fault of mine," Bhaskaranarayana said.

Though a senior ISRO official told IANS later that the organisation would respond at the appropriate time, scientists and other officials at the well-protected space agency headquarters in Bangalore went into a huddle and discussed animatedly Nair's scathing observations, especially on their chairman.

"Instead of carrying on with our work as on any regular day, we were willy-nilly caught up with the controversy as it was being played out on news channels and carried on web sites/news portals. We feel sad that Mr Nair went public against the organisation he served for over four decades and led for six years from 2003-2009," another scientist said, but declined to be named.

Asked if the morale of scientists would be affected by Nair's critical remarks such as "ISRO has gone to dogs", another official said that the organisation was not new to controversies and it would be business as usual after the euphoria died down.

"Though the Devas deal controversy has been going on for over year, it had not affected our work or projects on hand as evident from the successful launch of satellites three times last year and preparations for launches this year. We intend to carry on with our work as we are not only paid for it, but also have lot of projects at hand to execute," the official added.