‘Quick to come on screen and take credit’: Congress jabs PM Modi on Chandrayaan-3 landing

Taking a jibe at PM Modi, Vengopal said, “You were quick to take credit after the landing, but why your government failed in supporting the scientists”.

Congress leader K C Venugopal on Thursday accused prime minister Narendra Modi of hogging the limelight of India’s ambitious lunar mission Chandrayaan-3’s success and said that the all the credit for the historic feat goes to scientists behind the mission.

Read here: Indian scientists can make low-budget missions as their salary…: Ex-Isro chief on Chandrayaan 3

He said that the excitement and pride of the Chandrayaan-3 landing will “stay with us for a long time”.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the congress leader said, “ISRO Chairman Dr. Somanath’s leadership truly created history and we extend our hearty congratulations to him and his team. However, the PM must answer some for his hypocrisy.”

Taking a jibe at PM Modi, Vengopal said, “You were quick to come on screen and take credit after the landing, but why has your government failed so terribly in supporting the scientists and the ISRO.”

He further asked that why the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) engineers, who worked on the lunar mission, have not received their salaries for the last 17 months.

“Why did you cut the budget for such crucial missions by 32 per cent? These are the heroes of our country, they run a world-class space research program, but you have no regard for their talent and hard work. To add insult to injury, you hogged the limelight when that moment was about the scientists’ achievements,” he posted on X.

While speaking to news agency ANI, he said, “Yesterday was a proud moment for the country as the Chandrayaan successfully landed on the moon’s surface. But the government has to look at the priority they have given to this area. The engineers are not getting salaries and the budget has also been cut down.”

Earlier in the day, Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi had written to ISRO chief S Somanath and hailed the landing of Chandrayaan 3 as a ‘magnificent achievement’.

“This is to let you know how thrilled I was by ISRO’s magnificent achievement last evening. It is a matter of great pride and excitement to all Indians, particularly the younger generation”, the former Congress president wrote in her letter.

India’s ambitious lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the moon’s south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four nations including the United States, China and Russia, and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.

After scripting history, ISRO sent out a message of congratulations to the nation. “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘India, I reached my destination and you too!’: Chandrayaan-3,” posted ISRO on X

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched on July 14, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota Range, Andhra Pradesh.
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