August 16, 2026 06:20 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
After SC rebuke, BCI chief apologises to NALSAR students over enrolment freeze row | Independence Day: PM Modi’s big youth pitch— AI training, free coaching amid exam row and job concerns | ‘Shakti Ki Saptadhara’: Modi reveals 7 pillars to power India’s next leap in his I-Day speech from Red Fort | West Bengal STF arrests 3 more suspected Pakistani spies in Cooch Behar | Bengal man arrested in Bengaluru over terror links, Afghanistan travel plan | Ajit Doval breaks silence on Operation Sindoor in Discovery’s explosive new docuseries | Rahul Gandhi's 'mock hug' taunt sparks row; Centre stresses 'mutual respect' with Italy | Delhi on high alert: Bomb threat to High Court, airport and multiple locations ahead of I-Day | ‘Who are they to interfere?’: CJI Surya Kant slams Bar Council of India over NALSAR students’ enrolment row | 'Shows how low Congress has sunk': BJP slams Rahul Gandhi over Modi foreign policy jibe

Shiv Shakti Point: India 'not the owner ', Congress calls naming of Chandrayaan-3 touchdown spot absurd

| @indiablooms | Aug 27, 2023, at 02:48 am

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi has termed the naming of Chandrayaan-3’s touchdown point by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as absurd, asserting that India is not the owner of the moon or the point, media reported.

After his overseas trip, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Bengaluru on Saturday to visit ISRO and meet the scientists and acknowledge their efforts. During the visit, he announced Chandrayaan 3 touchdown site will be known as 'Shiv Shakti Point' and Chandrayaan 2 touchdown point as 'Tiranga Point'. He also declared August 23 as National Space Day, recognizing the significance of space exploration and India's accomplishments in space science.

In an interview with India Today, Alvi said, "The entire world will laugh...We have landed, it is very good. We are proud of it, no doubt about it. But we are not the owner of the moon or the point."

Alvis’s response came when he was countered with a question that the Congress had named 'Jawahar point' -- the spot where Chandrayaan-1 crash-landed in 2008, after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Congress leader said naming the spot ‘Jawahar Point’ was justifiable as Jawahar Lal Nehru founded ‘all this’.

Alvi said, "You can't compete Jawaharlal Nehru with anything... Pandit Nehru founded all this. But now Modiji is politicising the thing."

Responding to Alvi’s remarks, BJP's national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said Congress has revealed its 'anti-Hindu' stance with its reaction over the name ‘Shiv Shakti’.

He wondered why Rashid Alvi found the names ridiculous when both the names—Shiv Shakti Point and Tiranga Point—are linked to India, and pointed out that the ... Vikram lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai.

“The Congress has a family-first principle," he accused, adding that Congress would have adopted different naming conventions had they been in power.

"The UPA would have never sent Chandrayaan 2 and 3. And if they did, they would have named it Indira Point and Rajiv Point," he said.

'Jawahar Point', also known as 'Jawahar Sthal', marks the area close to the Shackleton Crater where ISRO's Moon Impact Probe crash-landed on November 14, coinciding with the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru. The probe was intentionally planned to crash land on this specific date as a tribute to Nehru.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.