Discourage experts from making political comments, Congress tells BJP

The Congress on Thursday condemned a statement of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Madhavan Nair that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government delayed the Chandrayaan-2, and asked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to discourage such a trend.

“You have no business to criticise the government...Just because you find that a particular political party is out of power or in power, you can say anything. This is condemnable,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said here.

“Tomorrow some other scientist may sing the tune of the Congress when we come back to power that all things were delayed by the BJP...,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this is the growing culture of this country. It must be condemned by me and the BJP also because democracy of Indian kind cannot flourish if institutions start thinking on these lines.”

Nair had on Wednesday claimed that the Chandrayaan-2 mission could have been carried out long ago, but for the UPA government’s “political decision” to push the “Mangalyaan” project with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. BJP spokesperson Sanjay Mayukh said: “Whatever work has been done by this government is in the public domain. People can see the work and have faith in our leader. Whatever they say is based on their faith and on what has been accomplished so far.”