New Delhi
Union minister Jitendra Singh, in charge of the Department of Space, said most "space-related pitfalls" occurred during the Congress rule including the "mysterious death" of senior space scientist Sarabhai.
Singh, who is the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, said that had Congress refrained from political interference, Sarabhai could have contributed valuably for many more years.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a GSLV-F10 rocket, with an earth observation satellite (EOS-03) onboard from Sriharikota spaceport, however, the failure to ignite the cryogenic stage of the launch vehicle prompted the premier space agency to declare that the mission could not be achieved as intended.
Earlier in the day, Singh said the first two stages went off fine, only after that there was a difficulty in cryogenic upper stage ignition. The mission can be rescheduled some time again, he said.
"ISRO has the resilience to bounce back. And it will. However, it should be allowed to function as a scientific and technological enterprise as put in place by Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan. There is far too much political grandstanding on it now," Ramesh, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change tweeted.
Sarabhai is widely regarded as the father of the Indian Space program. He died in 1971.
Hitting back, Singh said, "Jairam Ji, please don't forget, most of the Space-related pitfalls, including the mysterious midnight death of Vikram Sarabhai, happened during the Congress regime. Going by the same analogy, had Congress refrained from political interference, Sarabhai could have contributed valuably for many more years."
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