West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused ISRO of launching the moon mission ‘Chandrayaan 2’ to ‘divert attention’ from the economic slowdown. She did not mean it as a joke.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in state Assembly: As if the Chandrayaan launch is the first in the country. As if before they came to power, no such missions were taken up. It is an attempt to divert attention from economic disaster. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/F4SjBA2pwL
— ANI (@ANI) September 6, 2019
Mocking the moon mission, where India is all set to create history by being the fourth country on the moon, the TMC chief said that the Chandrayaan 2 mission is an attempt to ‘divert attention from economic disaster’. With this bizarre rant, Banerjee has trumped Raj Thackeray’s allegations last year when he had said that Sridevi’s death was used as a ruse to divert attention from Nirav Modi scam.
Whenever the news cycle changes and people move on to newer topics, the ‘intellectuals’ of the country often wonder whether people have moved on to other issues to divert attention from something they themselves are obsessed about.
Which congress leader will be arrested next to divert attention from the 60 percent decline in truck sales?
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) September 4, 2019
Because law taking its course is PM Modi’s attempt to divert attention from decline in truck sales.
Yawn more headline management from Modi govt! Just to divert from “democracy in danger” #SupremeMutiny https://t.co/Kft6nEp5rP
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) January 13, 2018
Or when democracy is in danger. Remember the time when PM Modi demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency in a surprise move to divert attention from the missing JNU student Najeeb?
Demonetisation failed.
110 poor people lost their lives for nothing, but a govt gimmick to divert attention from Najeeb & Bhopal Encounter.
— Shehla Rashid شہلا رشید (@Shehla_Rashid) August 31, 2017
Or how the bullet train was launched to divert attention from journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder?
Bullet train! To divert attention from the bullets they pumped into Gauri’s heart.
— Shehla Rashid شہلا رشید (@Shehla_Rashid) September 14, 2017
And now, Mamata has trumped everyone. She has floated conspiracy theory that the moon mission was launched to divert attention from ‘economic disaster’.
Chandrayaan 2 was actually announced in August 2009, when Congress-led UPA was in power. It was slated to be launched by end of 2012. However, G. Madhavan Nair, the architect of Chandrayaan 1 had alleged that the UPA government wanted to show “some major event” (the Mangalyaan Mars orbiter mission) before the 2014 election. Because of that, the Mangalyaan, Mars mission was launched.
If Mamata Banerjee’s rant is to be believed, PM Modi, even before he became the prime minister for second time, knew back in 2009 that there would be an economic slowdown in 2019 and hence he got the Congress-led UPA, where Banerjee-led TMC was an ally, to announce the moon mission.
