New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi has termed the naming of Chandrayaan-3s touchdown point by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as absurd, asserting that India is not the owner of the moon or the point, media reported.
After his overseas trip, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bengaluru on Saturday to visit ISRO and meet the scientists and acknowledge their efforts. During the visit, he announced Chandrayaan 3 touchdown site will be known as Shiv Shakti Point and Chandrayaan 2 touchdown point as Tiranga Point. He also declared August 23 as National Space Day, recognizing the significance of space exploration and Indias accomplishments in space science.
In an interview with India Today, Alvi said, The entire world will laugh…We have landed, it is very good. We are proud of it, no doubt about it. But we are not the owner of the moon or the point.
Alviss response came when he was countered with a question that the Congress had named Jawahar point — the spot where Chandrayaan-1 crash-landed in 2008, after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The Congress leader said naming the spot Jawahar Point was justifiable as Jawahar Lal Nehru founded all this.
Alvi said, You cant compete Jawaharlal Nehru with anything… Pandit Nehru founded all this. But now Modiji is politicising the thing.
Responding to Alvis remarks, BJPs national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Congress has revealed its anti-Hindu stance with its reaction over the name Shiv Shakti.
He wondered why Rashid Alvi found the names ridiculous when both the namesShiv Shakti Point and Tiranga Pointare linked to India, and pointed out that the … Vikram lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai.
The Congress has a family-first principle, he accused, adding that Congress would have adopted different naming conventions had they been in power.
The UPA would have never sent Chandrayaan 2 and 3. And if they did, they would have named it Indira Point and Rajiv Point, he said.
Jawahar Point, also known as Jawahar Sthal, marks the area close to the Shackleton Crater where ISROs Moon Impact Probe crash-landed on November 14, coinciding with the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru. The probe was intentionally planned to crash land on this specific date as a tribute to Nehru.
