Chandrayan-Vajpayee vision now a reality

Vajpayee has every reason to be pleased. The BJP patriarch noted with great pleasure the successful launch of India’s first unmanned mission to Moon. “I offer my hearty congratulations to Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO, and other scientists and engineers working on this mission on this historic success. They have worked relentlessly and with commendable fortitude to place an Indian spacecraft, carrying the Tricolour, on the trajectory of Moon,” Vajpayee said last month.

The former PM said he was especially pleased that this project, which was planned by the NDA Government, had been brought to a successful fruition. “I had the honour of announcing it in my Independence Day address to the nation in 2003,” he recalled.

In his words, the mission to Moon was a stupendous achievement by India in the frontier area of space research. Moreover, he outlined, what was especially creditable is that “our achievement is the fruit of self-reliant efforts”.