The Devas effect

Both UPA and NDA have a lot of explaining to do

On Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took time out from Budget-making to address a press conference, excoriating the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for perpetrating “a fraud against the country” in the deal between Antrix, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) commercial arm, and Devas, a multimedia services start-up set up by former Isro executives. The press conference was called after the Supreme Court upheld a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order to liquidate Devas. It is unclear why a senior minister in the throes of a deeply consequential exercise for the country decided to address a 10-year-old controversy that