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Udit Raj questioned the choice of Shubhanshu Shukla for the Axiom 4 mission, suggesting a Dalit should have been sent.
It has been a historic trip for Shukla, who became the first Indian to travel to the ISS. (Photos: ANI + Axiom Space)
Udit Raj, Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP, on Tuesday questioned the choice of Shubhanshu Shukla for the Axiom 4 mission.
Raj, who represented North West Delhi between 2014 and 2019 in Lok Sabha, said India should have sent a person from Dalit or Other Backward Class (OBC) to space.
“When Rakesh Sharma was sent earlier, the SC, ST, OBC people were not that educated. This time, I think it was the turn to send a Dalit… It is not that NASA conducted an exam, and then there was a selection. Any Dalit or OBC could have been sent in place of Shukla ji,” he told news agency ANI.
The Congress leader also alleged that the BJP-led government is not giving enough opportunities to the OBCs.
“I congratulate Shukla. I hope he will share his inputs with others. However, I feel an OBC or a Dalit should be given a chance. The scientists in South India are mostly from the OBC background. Science and technology have been developed in South India. This government is not giving enough opportunities to them,” he said.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others from the Axiom-4 mission are set to return to Earth on Tuesday, landing in the ocean near San Diego after a 22.5-hour journey from the International Space Station, where they spent 18 days.
The Dragon ‘Grace’ spacecraft carrying Shukla, commander Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, undocked from the space station at 4:45 pm IST on Monday.
Who Is Shubhanshu Shukla?
Born in Lucknow in 1985, Shubhanshu Shukla completed his schooling from Montessori to Class 12 at CMS Aliganj. He later graduated from the National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 2006. With over 2,000 hours of flying experience on top combat aircraft, he was selected in 2019 for India’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme and was eventually chosen as the pilot for the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission.
With this space trip, Shukla became the first Indian to travel to the ISS and only the second to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma’s pathbreaking spaceflight as part of the then Soviet Union’s mission to Salyut-7 space station in 1984.
ISRO paid approximately Rs 550 crore for Shukla’s travel to the ISS, an experience that will help the space agency in the planning and execution of its human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, set to take to orbit in 2027.
(with inputs from ANI, PTI)
Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter –twitter.com/saurabhkverma19
Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter –twitter.com/saurabhkverma19
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