Anand Mahindra, Chairperson of Mahindra and Mahindra, replied to an old video doing rounds on X (formerly Twitter), in which a BBC journalist can be seen asking a panellist if India needed to spend so much money in space programme when there were "700 million" people living in poverty in India. The Chairperson of Mahindra and Mahindra, who has often given it back to people trying to run down the country, gave a strong reply and reacted to the video clip by sharing his thoughts on how going to the moon helps India restore its "pride and self-confidence" and recounted the negative impact of "colonial rule." Mahindra said in his tweet, "It (moon mission) gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration."
First, watch the old video showing a BBC news anchor questioning India's space programme and suggesting that the country should care about the poor people rather than spending money on space missions.
Read Anand Mahindra's reply to the video below.
Anand Mahindra in his elaborate reply teared into the journalist's logic of questioning India's space endeavours. The business tycoon also gave a befitting reply on the question of poverty posed by the BBC journalist. Mahindra said in his tweet how the British colonial rule had "plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent."
"Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride & self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration."
India creates history
India's ISRO created history on Wednesday (August 23) by becoming the first country to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole and became only the fourth country to reach moon. India joined the elite list of nations and became the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to reach moon.
