New Delhi: In a major faux pas, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an event said that when "Rakesh Roshan reached the moon, Indira Gandhi asked him how India looked from there." The video clip went viral on social media as Banerjee confused astronaut Rakesh Sharma with Bollywood actor-filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, father of Hrithik Roshan.
She was speaking at an event in Kolkata shortly after Isro's Chandrayaan 3 successfully soft landed on the south pole of the moon on Wednesday.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared a video of Chief Minister Banerjee and wrote, "Had No Clue Indira Ji Had This Conversation With Rakesh Roshan."
Rakesh Sharma is the first Indian to have traveled to space in 1984. The astronaut spoke to then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from space during a live televised news conference.
Indira Gandhi asked Sharma, "Upar se Bharat kaisa dikhta hai aapko?" (How does India look like from space?). He responded by saying, "Saare jahaan se achcha" (Better than the whole world).
Meanwhile, Banerjee was not the only minister to have goofed up, a Rajasthan minister congratulated the "passengers" on the Chandrayaan 3 mission hours before the touchdown despite it being an unmanned mission.
"If we are successful and make a safe landing, I salute the passengers. Our country has taken a step further in science and space research. I congratulate the countrymen for this," Rajasthan Sports Minister Ashok Chandna told reporters, reported PTI.
Chandrayaan-3 made a successful soft-landing on the moon on Wednesday evening, making India only the fourth country to do so and the first to reach its uncharted south pole.