K’taka CM barred by ‘irritated’ Modi from receiving him at airport, claims Cong

Source: Hindustan Times | Original Published At: 2023-08-25 16:34:49 UTC

Key Points

• Congress alleges PM Modi barred Karnataka CM from airport reception due to irritation over not being first to felicitate ISRO scientists
• Modi attended BRICS summit in South Africa (Aug 22-24) and visited Greece before arriving in Bengaluru
• Karnataka CM and Deputy CM felicitated ISRO scientists ahead of Modi's visit
• Chandrayaan-3 made India the fourth country to achieve lunar soft-landing and the first to reach the Moon's South Pole

On the eve of prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru to meet the scientists behind the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Congress on Friday alleged that the PM has barred Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah from receiving him (Modi) at the airport. Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah congratulates ISRO scientists after the successful soft landing of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon, at the ISRO center, Peenya, in Bengaluru, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. (PTI Photo)

This, said the party’s Jairam Ramesh, is because of the PM’s ‘irritation’ at not being able to be the first person to felicitate the scientists; this was done by the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Karnataka, both of whom are from the Congress.

“The Prime Minister is scheduled to directly land in Bengaluru tomorrow at 6 am after his latest foreign jaunt to congratulate ISRO. He is apparently so irritated with the CM and Deputy CM of Karnataka for felicitating the scientists of ISRO before him, that he has purportedly barred the CM from receiving him at the airport, going against protocol,” Ramesh said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Slamming this as ‘nothing but petulant petty politics,’ the Rajya Sabha MP, who heads the grand old party’s communications department, then recalled an incident from the time Modi was the Gujarat chief minister.

“Has PM Modi forgotten CM Modi’s visit to the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad on 22nd Oct, 2008 just after the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-I at a time when Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister?” Ramesh wrote.

On Wednesday, hours after the Indian Space Research Organsation (ISRO), through its Chandrayaan-3 mission, scripted history by making India only the fourth country to make soft-landing on Moon, Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar arrived at the national space agency’s HQs to congratulate the team.

The next day, CM Siddaramaiah visited the ISRO headquarters in the state capital.

PM Modi, on the other hand, was in South Africa from Aug 22-24 for the 15th BRICS summit, and therefore, joined virtually for the mission’s landing. On Friday, he was in Greece on a day-long visit, and will directly reach Bengaluru on Saturday morning.

Before India, only the United States, Russia, and China, had made soft-landing on the lunar surface. Additionally, India is the only nation to reach the Moon’s South Pole, which was the mission’s intended destination.