Among the many minefields public figures must negotiate is the embarrassment of being confronted with awkward utterances made in the past. In the pre-electronic age, when reportage was based on the notebook scribbles of hacks, either indiscretion or mistakes could often be covered up by outright denial and the blame heaped on misreporting. Although such escape routes were not possible had the utterances been electronically recorded, hardened campaigners could always fall back on popular memory being woefully short. In any case, as has often been said, consistency is the virtue of small minds.
In the past week, India has witnessed many celebrations, some dignified and others embarrassingly hyperbolic, of the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission to the moon. The elation was warranted on many counts. Apart from the sheer scale of the technical and scientific achievements of the Indian Space Research Organisation, there was nail-biting uncertainty over the soft landing on the moon’s surface. A few days prior to the scheduled Chandrayaan-3 landing, a Russian mission to the moon had failed, much to the delight of a section of Western opinion that has moulded Putin’s Russia into a reincarnation of apartheid South Africa of yore. The sheer uncertainties of a soft landing on the relatively uncharted south pole of the moon were known and understood by very many of the political leaders who gathered before television screens with balloons and Indian flags. They were aware that there would be a steep political price to pay for anything less than total success of the mission.
That the knives were out should have been apparent to even the most casual of observers. How many gatherings, at party offices or elsewhere in their localities, were organised by politicians who are part of the INDIA platform? If, as has been subsequently asserted, the Chandrayaan-3 mission symbolised the forward march of Indian science and the triumph of the ‘scientific temper’ so assiduously promoted by Jawaharlal Nehru, the fountainhead of all post-Independence wisdom, there should have been bipartisan preparations for the great moment. Instead, if media reports are any guide, the immediate celebrations seemed to be organised by the Narendra Modi fan clubs across the country. The others who rushed in subsequently to compliment the Indian scientists and, at the same time, berate the prime minister for taking up too much of Isro’s telecast time appeared to have had a delayed rush of adrenalin. Their enthusiasm for the achievements of those who carried forward the legacy of Vikram Sarabhai was distinctly subdued because the political equations at the top were not to their liking.
To those accustomed to levelling charges of needless politicisation of a national achievement, the charge that many of Modi’s detractors were not fully committed to the triumph of Nehru’s scientific vision in August 2023 may seem churlish and unfair. In the past few days, however, YouTube channels and social media accounts in the Bangla-sphere have been having a field day on two sets of public utterances by the Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. The first was her assertion that one Rakesh Roshan had been earlier sent to the moon by Indira Gandhi. When this claim was met with dollops of incredulousness, she followed it by suggesting that it was Indira Gandhi who had travelled to the moon and had questioned the astronaut from there.
To her admirers, the chief minister of West Bengal may well personify the intriguing Hindu tradition of ithihasa—the narrative that blends mythology with perceived reality. However, the more mundane explanation could stem from her attempt to tell people that there was no novelty in the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission; Indira Gandhi or, maybe, Rakesh Roshan had been there before.
Subsequently, perhaps egged on by more conventional-minded colleagues, Mamata Banerjee may have tried to make amends by sending letters of congratulations to all the scientists and technicians from West Bengal who were involved in the moon mission. There are suggestions that she may organise some special prizes and a grand felicitation for them.
However, what may sour the mood is a video clip dating back to 2019 now doing the rounds that shows her delighting in the failure of Chandrayaan-2. For her, it was an example of Modi getting his comeuppance.
There are similar instances of the chief minister and, indeed, other stalwarts of the Opposition alliance questioning the authenticity of the retaliatory air strikes in Balakot. Others smelt a colossal hoax in the ‘Modi vaccine’ programme that was rolled out to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is impossible, at this stage, to anticipate if these unfortunate and hurtful comments made by the stalwarts of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party movement will come to haunt them in the coming days, more so because there is no scope for denial in case BJP propagandists choose to press home the point. In an ideal world, mounting an effective campaign against an incumbent trying for a third consecutive term should not pose too many hurdles. Apart from a natural fatigue that comes with prolonged enjoyment of power, there are bound to be important sections of the population that nurse deep grievances and seek a regime change.
Curiously, with about six months to go before the code of conduct becomes operational, the indications are that anti-incumbency hasn’t quite set in. On the contrary, despite the grand shows of unity in Patna and in Bengaluru, the appearance of political coherence seems to have eluded the anti-Modi coalition. Had Chandrayaan-3 not succeeded, the Opposition may have gone to the extent of dubbing it a vanity project of Modi. A dissident scientist or two would have been discovered to argue that Isro had been rushed into a premature launch for political reasons. Echoes of Western grumbles of India squandering resources on misplaced priorities would also have been heard. Sadly for the Opposition, the mission succeeded and a Shiv Shakti point was established on the moon, swelling the cultural pride of Indians.
This pride, albeit a Hindu-centric pride, is certain to receive a bigger boost in January when the much-awaited Ram temple in Ayodhya is formally consecrated and opened to devotees. During the movement for the temple, many of the Opposition parties had either opposed it or advocated the issue be put in permanent deep freeze. Will the inauguration of the temple — with the full sanction of the judiciary — mark the reforging of the national consensus? If so, Chandrayaan-3 was an important step in this direction.
