Jawahar vs Shivshakti: BJP slams Congress for putting family first after PM Modi

New Delhi: Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the names of the landing sites for ISRO’s final two lunar missions, the BJP launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of being family-oriented. PM Modi today met scientists from ISRO and made several announcements at the ISRO office. PM Modi said the Chandrayaan-3 landing site will be called ShivShakti and the Chandrayaan-2 impact site will be called ‘Tiranga’ and August 23, the date of the successful landing of the third lunar mission, will be celebrated as National Space Day.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted, “India first, not family first! Moon impact/landing site names – 1. Chandrayaan-1: Jawahar Point 2. Chandrayaan-2: Tiranga Point 3. Chandrayaan-3: Shivshakti Point. The lander was named after Vikram Sarabhai, Vikram Lander. If the UPA had done this, they would not have launched Chandrayaan-2 and -3, if they had, they would have named them Indira Point and Rajiv Point.

BJP leader CT Ravi said, “Chandrayaan-1 landing site, 2008 – Jawahar Point. Chandrayaan-3 landing site, 2023 – Shiva Shakti Point, the difference between dynasticists and nationalists!”

In a recent social media post, the Congress party said that the first domestically produced satellite, Aryabhatta, was launched during the rule of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In another post, the Congress party said that India launched its first rocket during the rule of then Prime Minister Nehru.

It is noteworthy that during the Congress government, the Chandrayaan-1 landing site was named “Jawahar Point”. A battle of credits has been going on between the BJP and the Congress over the success of the ISRO mission. The BJP attributes the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the Modi government has provided the much-needed impetus to the space sector in the past nine years, while the Congress claims that it was former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who laid the foundation for ISRO in 1962.