India landed on the dark side of the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 becoming the first ever country to tread on the rocky south pole of the moon. At the time when dynamic twenty first century India explores uncharted territories on the Moon with Pragyan rover, India’s grand old party sinks in Nehru nostalgia. Quite ironic is the fact that they always blame Modi and his party for Nehru bashing, “for everything they bring Nehru”

These are just few of the many tweets from Congress’ official twitter handle seeking credit for successful Chandrayaan Mission. Someone might ask them if they want to award credit for success to Pt. Nehru, would they be rational enough to award credit for blunders and failures to Pt. Nehru?

Would they agree that it was Nehru’s flawed vision that lead to India getting battered by China in 1962? Was it Nehruvian flawed vision that allowed Nehru’s daughter, larger than the country itself imposing Emergency in 1975; the darkest hour of a democracy? Was it Nehru’s vision that lead his party to orchestrate one of the largest massacre/genocide in the heart of India? The Sikh Riots of 1984! Was it Nehru’s vision that lead India to reach bankruptcy in 1991 and head to pledge 67 tons of Indian Gold Reserve to secure a $2.2 billion loan from IMF? Seeking a handout like Pakistan does every other decade if not year.

There are zillion of instances which prove that Nehruvian policies bit India more than they helped. Is Congress willing to own them as well? Reciting all those instances isn’t the point here. However, mentioning why Nehru’s vision was flawed if at all there was a vision, is the motive.

At the time when Nehru’s cigarettes’ were travelling via airplane and Nehru himself was being chauffeured around in Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith; the engineers and scientists were carrying rockets via bullock carts and bicycles. The launch sites didn’t have even basic facilities and the scientists and engineers had to walk or cycle to the nearest railway station for meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Why?

Nehruvian extremely exclusive polices never let the required ecosystem around ISRO to flourish. The fact is that ISRO survived despite the Nehruvian Policies.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai made a suggestion and Pt. Nehru agreed; so INCOSPAR took birth. Having a space agency is not a vision; even Bangladesh has one. The country that was battered mercilessly by West Pakistan, got its individual identity by the end of 1972, was still able to form a Space agency in less than 8 years. India, on the contrary was in a much better state than Bangladesh was after its independence in 1947, could setup its space agency after 15 years. And not to mention, Pakistan also has its own space agency.

Missing ecosystem was not only specific to ISRO, it was or still is the same story or even worse with DRDO, HAL, IITs, IIMs and so on and so forth.

It indeed is a unique paradox where we had world class IITs and world class organizations like DRDO and HAL but still at the very same time we were importing high tech weapons and fighter jets but exporting engineering talent. That was a brilliant outcome of Nehruvian policies.

Also read: Rafale Deal sums up India’s journey from “Marut” to “Tejas”

India and its space agency had to wait till 2014 to get a prime minister with a vision and a mindset of inclusivity rather than exclusivity.

ISRO since its inception in its first 60 years contributed less than 2% of the global space economy i.e. less than $8billion. And now, in just one decade it is expected to reach $100 billion i.e. roughly around 10% of the global space economy. And $100 billion is a conservative number, primarily built on last three years events. Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) was conceived in 2020. And Indian Space Association (ISpA), was setup exclusively for the successful collaborative development of the Private Space Industry in India in 2021.

India had exactly one startup before 2014 catering to Space Technology. And today we have more than 140 startups working in tandem with ISRO. In just last three years we had more than 100 startups registered.

This is the result of a Space Ecosystem that is being nurtured now as a result of Modi’s vision as compared to a missing ecosystem during Nehruvian era.

This transformation is an outcome of a VISION!

As a matter of fact there were only 350 startups in 2014, today in 2023 we have more than 90,000 startups with more than 100 Unicorns. Unicorns are the startups that are valued more than 1 billion dollars. This is Modi’s vision!

Congress always had been reluctant in creating a conducive environment for different disciplines to flourish but has always been more than eager to steal credit and build legacy for its ruling dynasty. If we would have gone by Congress’s way of working, landing point of Chandrayaan- III would have been called Narendra Point exactly like Jawahar Point was given called the landing point of Chandrayaan I. Fortunately, it is not the case now and the landing point was named as Shivshakti Point.

Thank you for reading!

Also read:

• Rafale Deal sums up India’s journey from “Marut” to “Tejas”
• ASAT, ABM and the shifting Nuclear Paradigm