Anand Mahindra, Mahindra Group Chairman on Thursday responded to a BBC anchor remark on India while discussing ISRO's historic lunar mission - Chandrayaan-3. The anchor asked question to a person who was reporting from India - whether India should really be spending money on a space programme the size of Chandrayaan-3 in the wake of proverty in the nation. He claimed much of India's population lives in poverty and over 700 million Indians don't have access to a toilet.
Slamming the BBC anchor, Mahindra asserted the truth is that, in large part, India's poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent.
"Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride and belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride and self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration…," the industrialist said on X, formerly Twitter.
In a giant leap for its space programme, India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3, which cost Rs 615 crore, touched down on the lunar south pole at 6. 04 pm on Wednesday, propelling the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface. With this touchdown on Moon after a flawless 41-day voyage to script history and less than a week after a Russian lander headed to the lunar south pole crashed, India is the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing on the Moon after the US, China and erstwhile Soviet Union.
