“You kept space department behind veil of secrecy”: Jitendra Singh accuses Jairam Ramesh

Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Jairam Ramesh over the debate on Science and Chandrayaan-3 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Jitendra Singh said “You had kept the space department behind the veil of secrecy. You had regimented it. You had disallowed the industry to indulge in this and that is why the progress got halted. It took us 75 years to reach where we are today and that has happened after the quantum leap of the last few years.”

Jairam Ramesh took a dig at the Centre in the Rajya Sabha and said that leadership is not about taking credit when things are going good, and running away when things are going bad. Union Minister also mentioned a new setup called ‘in-space’ which facilitates the engagement of industry.

“Only four space startups were there before 2014, today we have 150 and that has been possible because a new arrangement has been set up. An interface is set up which is known as ‘in-space’ which facilitates the engagement of industry and is headed by a person from the corporate sector. A new PSU was also set in called NSIL (New Space India Limited) in order to engage in collaboration. This is what has given the outcomes,” Jitendra Singh added.

“Anusandhaan, out of the 52000 crore budget that has been envisaged for 5 years in Anusandhan National Research Foundation, as much as 36000 crores, almost 70 percent going to come from non-government sources and it has happened only 6 months back, who was the PM, I don’t have to say,” he added.

Jitendra Singh also noted that these steps will pave the way, for greater involvement in the industry.
“There are 424 satellites launched since the 1990s and out of 424 as many as 389 satellites have been launched in the last 9 years. Which was the govt and who was the PM? We have so far earned 174 million US dollars from the launching of foreign satellites. Out of these, 157 million dollars have been earned in the last 9 years,” Jitendra Singh said.

In between his speech, Jitendra Singh pointed out Chandrayaan-3 Project director Palanivel Veeramuthuvel and praised him in the Upper House of the Parliament and said that not only men scientists but we do celebrate women scientists also mentioned Kalpana who was the Joint director of India’s moon mission.

“When we started our space program in the early-mid ’60s, on one hand, you had Sarabhai deprived of transport, and other hand, the Soviet Union and the USA were preparing to land humans on the moon. That was the gap. Some friend here was saying that the scientists are not getting their salary, something must have happened that success is coming now not then,” Jitendra Singh said.

Jitendra Singh further targeted the Congress and said “If you see back in the science archives, Vikram Sarabhai is carrying launcher vehicle on the bicycle carriage, who was the PM at that time? Which government was there? There was never any shortage of talent among our scientists. They had loyalty and the passion to work hard. But there was a lack of compatibility and that has now been completed.”