ISRO Chief Somanath withdraws autobiography after row over remark on K Sivan, Chandrayaan-2 failure

mangaloretoday.com/News18

New Delhi, Nov 06, 2023: ISRO Chairman S Somanath on Saturday withdrew his upcoming autobiography from publishing after a controversy over some of his alleged critical comments about his predecessor K Sivan broke out among people.

Somnath said that he has decided to withdraw the publication of his book — ‘Nilavu Kudicha Simhangal’ (roughly translates into Lions that drank the Moonlight) — in view of this situation.

 

Responding to a report which said that his autobiography had some critical remarks about Sivan, he said that every person has to go through some kind of challenges during their journey to reach a top position in an organisation.

He said, “Persons holding such key positions have to go through several challenges,” adding that one such challenge is going higher up on the organisational ladder and that every person goes through these challenges.

He said some other persons might be eligible for an important post, adding that he “just tried to bring out that particular point. I didn’t target any particular individual in this regard.”

Somanath, however, admitted that in his book he had mentioned the lack of clarity with regards to the announcement of Chandrayaan-2 mission failure. The second mission in India’s lunar explorations series in 2019 failed to make a soft-landing on the moon.

The national space agency’s chief reiterated that his intention was to simply try and inspire those who wish to achieve something in their lives by overcoming challenges and obstacles, adding that, he wasn’t attempting to criticise anyone.

With a mention of Somanath’s humble beginnings, the autobiography — Somanath said — was aimed at motivating the talented, yet not so confident people.

“The book is not intended to teach my life story. Its only intention is to inspire people to chase their dreams while battling life’s adversities,” the ISRO chief said.