History posthumously reserves its reverence for those it recognises as defenders of truth. Galileo, who famously dared to postulate that the Earth revolves around the Sun, was forced to recant under threat, but is remembered to this day for his defiant mutterings. But what of those whose pursuit of truth ends in shunning and humiliation? What of the would-be whistleblower whose death, or supposed death, is twisted into disgrace? Is it worth speaking the truth when there is no assurance that posterity will treat them kindly?This is the central tragedy of The Whistle Blower’s Wife, the latest novel by Biman Nath, formerly Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Raman Research Institute. His protagonist, virologist Aditya Sen, is cast as a modern Galileo, persecuted by the machinery of a pharmaceutical giant and a complicit government institute. Aditya is among those racing against time during the Covid crisis, searching for a viable cure as the death toll climbs and the pressure to deliver a miracle becomes overwhelming. In this frenzy, scientific protocol is sidelined, crucial data is ignored, and the administration is eager to congratulate itself for a breakthrough made before others, than to ensure that it is actually safe.Aditya’s refusal to endorse a dangerous drug disguised as a cure places him and his estranged family in the crosshairs of the Establishment. When he predictably finds himself at death’s door, the official story hints at scandal and disgrace. The question is whether the official story is trustworthy or whether it hides a different truth?The novel’s most profound horror lies in Aditya’s torment in the days leading up to the incident that was meant to end him. “He has been a ghost for so long that death cannot possibly hurt him,” the book opens. He has been sidelined and his reputation is in tatters. Everything he worked for has collapsed around him. He believes he is doing the right thing. Yet he is anguished by the thought that his estranged wife, Madhuri, will resent him. Most wrenching of all, his son may grow up believing the public narrative, never knowing how desperately he fought to reveal the truth.Nath, an astrophysicist himself, understands this ecosystem closely. Speaking over a video call from his office at IISER Mohali, where he is a visiting professor, he said, “I have problems with corporate and bureaucracy interfering with scientists’ work. That is not how science should work, and that is not how science worked for centuries.”The system he describes does not need to win a debate. It simply sidelines, smears and denigrates until the truth teller is psychologically annihilated. It is a world run by what he calls ambitious mediocrity and the sycophants who crowd around its ring leaders. “All these phrases, like ambitious mediocrity, are something that I have heard,” he said. “The things that the characters are saying, I have actually heard them.”Ask him about the plotline about sexual harassment, Nath says, “It is inspired by what I have seen in somebody very close to me.” However, immediately, a disclaimer follows, “But that is not to say that all such cases are like that. It is just one case.”Story continues below this adWhy the whistleblower’s wife?The story then becomes Madhuri’s. The betrayed whistleblower’s wife is turned into a convenient scapegoat. Still skeptical, still coming to terms with her husband’s betrayal, and burdened with her own guilt as well as concern for her son and elderly parents, she begins a lonely quest to sift through the wreckage of her husband’s life. Her clues are a cryptic laptop, a toxicology report, the whispers of colleagues, and an oddly hopeful email Aditya sent shortly before his final act. She searches these fragments for the ghost of the principled man she once loved. Her struggle is not only against a corporate conspiracy but also against the official story that has already begun to define her husband’s life. The question is whether she can reclaim his legacy or whether the system will swallow the truth.Nath’s choice to tell the story through the wife’s eyes is inspired. “I wanted to look at the scientist from another point of view,” he says. “Nobody talks about the spouses of scientists. We think of scientists as not quite normal people. I wanted to understand what the wife of a scientist goes through, the conflicts she faces.”ALSO READ | ‘Indian English writing is very inferior…’: Author Jeyamohan on language, Salman RushdieOne of the novel’s most daring choices is the unlikely alliance that forms between Madhuri and someone she never expected to rely on. When I said I had trouble suspending disbelief at this point, Nath’s response was revealing. “It came from my imagination and I thought it was not implausible,” he said. “I have also seen a case like that. It is possible because women think differently.” The unlikely alliance then becomes a counter-narrative to the system’s attempts to divide and silence.The novel’s most devastating insight lies in its conclusion. What becomes of the people who orchestrated it all? Does the truth ever come out? Will he be vindicated as Galileo once was, or will the system simply outwait everyone who tries to fight it? The answers to these questions are revealing. The refusal of easy catharsis turns the book into a complex work of social realism.Story continues below this adThe inspirationThis honesty is rooted in real tragedies in Indian science. Nath researched two cases. The first was Vinod Shah, a scientist on the staff of M S Swaminathan at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. Shah died by suicide in 1972 in protest against alleged irregularities. The second was Dr Subhas Mukherjee, the Calcutta scientist who created India’s first test tube baby in 1978 but was ostracised. He died by suicide in 1981.“What got me thinking about this novel was the suicide of Vinod Shah,” Nath said. “Years later, when I wanted to pursue science, my father showed me the cuttings and asked whether I had the mental strength. It was a sobering thought.”That question becomes the novel’s refrain. “The suicide note that Vinod Shah wrote. I used some of the phrases in the note written by Aditya,” he said.For Nath, writing fiction mirrors his work in theoretical astrophysics. “I look at a phenomenon and create a model. That is a leap of imagination. In fiction, I also build a model guided by the laws of reality. I cannot break causality,” he says.Story continues below this adIn the end, The Whistle Blower’s Wife is a portrait of how modern power operates. It shows how easy it is to destroy the character of the truth teller and how completely a system can rewrite a life.As our conversation ended, Nath’s thoughts returned to the stars. His next project is a work of nonfiction titled The Animal Astronomers. “It is about how animals look at stars,” he says. “A dung beetle navigates using the Milky Way.”It is a fitting pursuit. The Whistle Blower’s Wife is also about ways of seeing. It is about Aditya, who refused to bend. It is about Madhuri, who learns to see the man she loved through the ruins he left behind. Nath has built a powerful model of violence using the elements of human life, love, fear, betrayal and the fragile hope that truth, however buried, still matters.