September 21, 2023
Aparupa Poddar’s speech during the discussion on“India’s glorious space journey marked by successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3″
Madam Chairperson, I am thankful to you for allowing me to speak on the success of Chandrayaan-3 in this Special Session and in this New Parliament Building. I stand here today to speak on behalf of my party, All India Trinamool Congress. It makes me immensely proud as an Indian that we achieved this paramount feat. This feat that we have achieved shall inspire millions and millions of kids across the country to be scientists and astronauts. As our hon. Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee said, ‘We are indeed in the super league of space. We must remember it as an achievement of our scientists, and every bit of credit for Chandrayaan-3 should go to them. It was a result of collective team work and efforts of our ISRO scientists.’ However, it breaks my heart to see that the Union Government has given all the credit to once political leader. It is the hypocrisy of the Union Government as they appreciate Chandrayaan-3, but they have reduced the budget of the Department of Space in 2023-24 by eight per cent in comparison to the last year’s expenditure for Space Science receiving a cut of 32 per cent even after delivering missions like Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1. While our very own ISRO is achieving these marvellous achievements, it has 303 vacancies for various scientists and engineers in electronic, mechanical and computer science. It also reflects the grave problem of unemployment in our society. The Reserve Bank of India’s monthly bulletin for September shows that our unemployment rate has increased to 8.1 per cent, which is extremely concerning. While we are trying to empower women by bringing in legislations like the Women’s Reservation Bill, only one out of four employees of ISRO are women out of 16,000 employees. There was not even a single woman in the panel that headed the Chandrayaan-3. The Union Government claims that India only achieved success after 2014. We must remember that we have been a democracy over 75 years, and India began its space journey in1960s. It is not today’s effort that has put us on this feat. Consistent efforts for 60 years from the scientists and the people of India have put us on this feat. While the Indian Government’s politics and actions break my heart, I feel proud when I read about the contribution of Anuj Nandi from West Bengal, who designed the camera of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. I feel proud when I hear that a son of a farmer from West Bengal has been empowered to dream and empowered to catch the stars. This was the case of Chandrakant Kumar, the Deputy Project Director of Chandrayaan-2. He joined ISRO in 2001, and like every hardworking Bengali, proved his worth. This depicts our country’s aspirations, and we must work hard to make these aspirations possible. Most of the ISRO employees are not from IITs and IIMs but are from different colleges across the country. It also raises a few concerns in my mind as to why the students from IITs and IIMs prefer to work outside India; why thousands of students dream to study, work and settle abroad than in India? Is the Government giving enough facility to retain the top talent within the country to make the aspiration of youngsters like Anuj and Chandrakant a reality? It is extremely important that we invest more in our space research and give ISRO flexibility in their research and development that they deserve. We must promote academic research across different subjects throughout the country, and not put ED behind those who differ from us. I would like to end with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s quote: “Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit”. आप उदमूकी दो लाइनों पर िवज्जहु फरमाइए। “चाूंद सेपदामकीतजए, कहीं चरुा न लेचेहरेका नूर।”
