Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar joined the party affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) for a protest in front of the ISRO office on Wednesday following reports that Gaganyaan, the Indian Human Spaceflight programme, will move to Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
Speaking to reporters, Shivakumar stressed that Gaganyaan should not be shifted out of Bengaluru and Karnataka.
“It’s a matter of Karnataka’s pride. The Centre is planning to shift the programme out of Bengaluru. It shouldn’t happen,” he said. “Let them start a new project in Gujarat, but it is not right to shift the programme that began and is running here,” he said.
Shivakumar had recently shot off letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai opposing any such move.
NSUI members raised slogans, holding placards and posters.
Shivakumar pointed out that the Centre had also planned to shift Aero India out of Bengaluru. “They withdrew only after Kannadigas protested,” he said, adding that the plan to shift the Human Spaceflight programme was “purely political to please Gujarati bosses.”
Initiated in 2007, ISRO’s Gaganyaan is aimed at launching a manned mission in the Lower Earth Orbit.
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