Chandrayaan-3: Actor Prakash Raj slammed for 'mocking' India's moon mission

Chandrayaan-3: Actor Prakash Raj's tweet on India's moon mission came three days ahead of Vikram Lander's attempt at soft landing on the Moon's south pole.

As Chandrayaan-3 looks to script history on Wednesday by landing on the Moon's south pole, popular actor Prakash Raj's tweet on India's Moon mission did not go down well with many X (formerly Twitter) users. Raj on Sunday tweeted a picture of a cartoon depicting a man in a vest and lungi pouring tea, which he called the “first picture coming from the Moon”.

Prakash Raj tweeted about Chandrayaan-3 mission on Sunday.

“BREAKING NEWS: First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #just asking,” the south Indian actor tweeted. Objecting to his post, several users slammed the Raj for allegedly “mocking” Chandrayaan-3. (LIVE updates)

“There is a difference between hating someone and hating your country. So sad to see this state of yours!,” comedian Appurv Gupta's reply cropped up in response to the actor's post.

Many users shared similar sentiments and advised the actor to respect the mission “irrespective of his political ideology”. Raj is known as a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party.

Some users believed that his post was "derogatory" and in a bid to criticise Modi, Raj was, in fact, mocking the hard work of the scientists. “Shame on you for mocking #Chandrayaan3 in your blind hate for Modi. You are mocking our scientists who put years of their lives into making this a success,” a Mumbai-based BJP member replied.

“Some of its own citizens are praying for Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 3 to fail so that they can pin down the Modi government,” another X user said.

Screenshot of Prakash Raj's tweet on Chandrayaan-3.

All eyes on India

Chandrayaan-3's Vikram Lander is carrying the hopes of 1.4 billion Indians to chart history by landing on the lunar south pole on Wednesday evening. The module has completed its de-boosting manoeuvre operations and is hovering above the Moon's south pole, undergoing internal checks and looking for potential landing sites.

The mission is a follow up of Chandrayaan-2, which attempted soft landing on the Moon four years ago in September 2019 but failed in final stages. If successful, the achievement will put India among the elite club of nations to have achieved the feat, namely the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.

Notably, Russia's moon mission Luna-25 also attempted moon landing on Sunday but collided with the lunar surface and failed in the mission. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos had launched Luna 25 for the lunar south pole on August 11, nearly four weeks after the launch of Chandrayaan-3.