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Comment by thewhitetulip | Hacker News Reader

I read that the maximum experiments are in the orbiter so this is a successful mission.

The only thing for which it 'failed' was to let the ruling class do chest thumping by saying 'we are the fourth country to land a rover'. The ruling party had planned a great celebration today for it's 100 days in office, a date coinciding when the rover would land! They wanted to milk it for their nationalistic purposes while their blind followers dance to the tunes and love ISRO's achievements while bashing Nehru who started ISRO (1962).

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The live stream was heavily oriented towards the VIPs in the mission control room. There were interesting things going on but the video kept angling for reaction shots. It was annoying if you came for the space and all you got was the politics.

This is pretty typical for ISRO, or any government entity. It's not even political. If you see the older livestreams, you'll see a podium bought to the mission control room floor, where the ISRO bigwigs will deliver their remarks and congratulations. Wouldn't surprise me if this is followed by a "Vote of Thanks" and presenting of a bouquet.

I think you are unnecessarily making this political. Even if India was successful at landing i dont think the government would count it as 'their' achievement rather would be counted as an achievement of the whole nation. And even 'non-blind' followers would celebrate, given how everyone were on edge of their seats yesterday. Also no one is bashing Nehru because he started ISRO.

Calling the moon landing a government PR gimmick is highly irrespectful to the scientists behind this.

> I think you are unnecessarily making this political

GP is just highlighting that India's ruling party made this unnecessarily political. I'm not sure why it's being downvoted when it's factually accurate and is interesting in the context of the discussion. This is exactly the same thing that was going on in the Soviet Union where space project schedules were dictated by key party dates and celebrations. Not sure if it was a factor here, but multiple Soviet missions suffered due to being pushed to meet politically motivated party deadlines.

Most of the science is indeed onboard the orbiter. The mission was a success for the scientists.

> GP is just highlighting that India's ruling party made this unnecessarily political. I'm not sure why it's being downvoted when it's factually accurate and is interesting in the context of the discussion.

Could you share some citations to justify your comment? There is no evidence out there that Chandrayaan was politicized by the Government. ISRO is funded by the Government and Department of Space directly comes under the PM. So, there is bound to be some Government/Minister presence.

Why should there be something distracting on launch day ?

Distracting to whom? The scientists were pretty much focussed with their tasks.

You are telling me ISRO spent no resources catering to this visit. Even 0.1% of resources, mindshare and energy wasted on landing day is stupid IMO. Do all speeches, visits the next day. Modi was clearly there for a photo op.

To be fair, I remember PM Manmohan Singh also in ISRO live streams so that wasn't it.

My issue is that the 100 day celebration was timed around rover landing and unfortunately rover did not land.

The assumption GP made is that government deliberately planned their 100 days in office and the moon landing date to coincide. But the actual date of mission was different and was posponded last minute(literally) because of a leakage. So if the ruling party (ruling for past 5 years) really wanted the dates to coincide they would have easily scheduled the initial date to coincide.

So there is no 'factual' correctness in the comment. And adding political angle and then comparing India to Soviet based on that is unnecessary.

He has not ruled "since 5yrs"

His second term just started in May

> Also no one is bashing Nehru because he started ISRO

Respectfully, you are not right. Just go down this thread and you'll find one comment which says "Just because Nehru did one thing right doesn't absolve his wrongs"

There has been a coordinated attempt to distort history and malign Nehru. Not claiming that he did not screw up, he did. But he doesn't get credit due to the misinformation campaign

The ruling class stood by the nation's scientists at the time of failure, which is not a norm in India. But again, I've seen people who hate Modi/BJP "celebrating" ISRO's failure on social media. So, this comment wasn't exactly surprising.

You see, ISRO is the poster boy for Indians. They are brilliant and hard working. Exactly opposite of any other govt org

So even if ISRO fails it is temporary. And we all are unconditionally proud of ISRO no matter what.

No one has not stood by the scientists. That would be an incredibly stupid move.

You are being disrespectful to the scientists who have been working on this project for 12 years with this asinine comment. Absolutely shameful and disgusting!

I could be wrong, but I think Modi came across as a lot more compassionate leader after the failure. And, to be honest, what is wrong with chest thumping if you have a success.

Regarding Nehru, one good deed doesn't get rid of his other sins and royal screw ups.

> And, to be honest, what is wrong with chest thumping if you have a success.

Chest thumping is fine for your success, not of someone else's in which one had a grand total of 0 contribution

Dang: parent comment is yet another flame war thing.

Doing exactly what I said in my origin comment! Blaming Nehru while PM tales credit for ISRO, an org started by Nehru

Also

https://hwnews.in/news/national-news/govt-cuts-back-incentiv...

You don't get to chest thump after you cut salaries of ISRO staff and yet want to use their work for nationalisic agenda

Given the successful landing would've been a political bragging point, could contact have been lost deliberately by people with a different political affiliation?

I am anti Modi but I so much wanted this mission to succeed. ISRO is the only organization in India which is doing great on global level. It was really irritating the moment Modi turned this mission into his PR gimmick. Had this mission succeeded, the public euphoria would have been something unparalleled. Recently public reactions to Pulwama attack (months of protesting, candle light marches), article 370 issue (people started dancing on the streets when it was removed) were actually terrifying because it showed the rise of maddening extreme nationalism.

But ISRO was away from this madness and political agenda. Now Modi has turned his eye on this organization, god save ISRO because Modi has tried to undermine the independence of every other major institutions like Army, RBI, EC, CAG etc.

Are you implying that rest of the anti-Modi folks wanted this mission to fail? That's somewhat sad.

ISRO is funded by the Government and PM heads the Department of Sapce. So, what did you expect him to do? Nod off and go to sleep. It's actually good to have a PM who stands by country's scientists even at the time of failure(and not just at the time of success).

I call complete utter bullshit on your anti modi hysteria.

A bit like asking would democrats have foiled the moon landing to deny Nixon the credit - I find it hard to believe the scientists who put years into the project would screw it up over a change in political leadership

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