Rajya Sabha adopts resolution lauding scientists for Chandrayaan-3 success

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution lauding the scientists for the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission. The members endorsed the motion by thumping of desks after a discussion on 'India's glorious space journey marked by successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3". "This House recognises and appreciates the scientists, including the women scientists, for achieving this arduous feat with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the unconquered south pole of the Moon.

"This accomplishment, along with the other space missions, will usher in long-lasting economic and social upliftment," Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar said. During the discussion, both BJP and Congress members highlighted steps taken during their rule to make Chandrayaan missions successful. Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh accused the previous Congress governments of "regimenting" the space department and debarring the common man and industry from it. He stressed that the Modi government has created an enabling atmosphere for the success of the country's space programme. Participating in the debate, he said there are 150 startups in the space sector today. Before 2014, the number was just four which was "embarrassing", the minister said.

He also said that the space budget in the last nine years has increased to 142 per cent. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the government of attempting to "airbrush" the milestones achieved in the space sector since the 1960s, and said the Indian space programme should be looked as an instrument of development and "not an instrument of muscular nationalism". While lauding the Chandrayaan-3 mission, he said there was a need to remind the House of the people who have contributed so far to it, rather than fall victim to this new impression that has been created that this entire accomplishment is the result of only one individual. He said its success is based on the competencies, capabilities and capacities that have been created over 60 years. "We need to give our scientific and technological institutions full freedom.

We need to give our scientific and technological institutions full independence and professionalism and we need to free our scientific and technological institutions of any political patronage and political interference and intervention," Ramesh said. He called for acknowledging the glorious space journey that started in the early 1960s and the important milestones achieved so far. On August 23, India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 became the first to land on the uncharted south pole of the Moon. The soft-landing on moon propelled India into an elite group of nations.