Congress on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hogging the limelight after the success of Chandrayaan-3.
In a letter to the ISRO Chairman, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi said she was writing to him to let him know how thrilled she was by the ISRO’s magnificent achievement on Wednesday. “It is a matter of great pride and excitement to all Indians, particularly the younger generation,”Ms. Gandhi said, adding that the space research agency’s outstanding capabilities have been built up over decades.
Stating that the excitement and pride of the Chandrayaan-3 landing will “stay with us for a long time”, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal targeted the Prime Minister on X (formely Twitter) for “hogging the limelight”.
“However, the PM must answer some for his hypocrisy. 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 said.
The Congress leader asked as to why the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) engineers, who worked on Chandrayaan-3 launch pad, have not received their salaries for the last 17 months.
“Why did you cut the budget for such crucial missions by 32%? 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 added.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also shared several photographs of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi with doyens of India’s space programme such as Vikram Sarabhai to highlight the continuity in the country’s progress in the sector.
