Pachauri: hornet's nest stirred

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has expressed pain over the "unfounded and motivated" attack against the institution, especially its head R K Pachauri, in a leading UK newspaper.

It was ridiculous to suggest that TERI was a company about money and did not ever publish its accounts because it was registered under the Societies Act and submitted detailed an audited account to the government, they said. Thus do they confirm that they have never published their accounts.

Nevertheless, nine Fellows of the Institute have written a letter (they say not to whom). And these appear to be the cream of the Indian establishment. They are:

S Sundar, currently NTPC Professor in Regulatory Studies in the TERI School of Advanced Studies

R K Batra, formerly Board of Directors of Bharat Petroleum and a part-time Director on the Board of Cochin Refineries

C Dasgupta, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, former Indian Ambassador, Brussels

Prodipto Ghosh, former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests
Ashok Jaitly, former chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir

K Ramanathan, former Member (Power Systems) in the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Government of India

J L Bajaj, former Chairman, Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission

Nitin Desai, formerly head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Prabir Sengupta, formerly Commerce Secretary, Indian Government and then Director, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Dr Pachauri has some powerful friends. And these men are demanding an unqualified apology from the newspaper for the "libellous" piece of journalism, "failing which the institute would take recourse to other measures it would deem appropriate."

I guess we're off their Christmas card list then.

PACHAURI THREAD