Chandrayaan-2: Credit war breaks out between Cong, BJP

Chandrayaan-2 embarked on the journey to the moon leaving behind a trail of controversy with the Congress seeking to credit the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for its success and the BJP dubbing the Congress's approach as demeaning.

Congress leaders also pointed out that it was the then prime minister Manmohan Singh, who had sanctioned the project way back in 2008, prompting the BJP to hit back at the grand old party terming its stand as “demeaning”

“This is a good time to remember the visionary move of India's first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to fund space research through INCOSPAR in 1962 which later became ISRO. And also Dr Manmohan Singh for sanctioning the Chandrayaan 2 project in 2008,” the Congress said on its Twitter handle.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah sent congratulatory messages to space scientists at ISRO on the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2.

“I congratulate our scientists at ISRO for the successful launch of Chandrayaan 2 and setting yet another benchmark in the field of space technology. A grateful nation is proud of them,” Shah said.

“I also thank PM Modi ji for encouraging our institutions for setting new standards everytime,” Shah, who is also the BJP president, said.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit out at the Congress saying that the launch of Chandrayaan-2 should not have been dragged into the political arena.

“This is really demeaning. It’s a proud moment for every Indian. Shouldn’t have been drawn into the political arena,” said Patra, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Puri in Odisha.

"Since there was no future leadership in sight for the Congress, there was a tendency to fall back on the past to stay relevant,” Patra said.

"Congratulations to our scientists for continuing with the admirably successful record of our space programme, which owes its success to constitutional values of scientific temper and modern thinking," CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.