The BRICS summit, hosted by South Africa, was the first face-to-face meeting since 2019.
New Delhi:
Chandrayaan-3. The answer to the question: ‘Why did South African President Cyril Ramaphosa want to sit next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in that country last week?’
The $75 million Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission has been praised by space agencies and governments around the world and, as Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told NDTV on Tuesday, has also sparked several positive reactions from BRICS leaders at events in Johannesburg.
The South African president – who hailed the landing as his country’s own – stated after landing that he wanted to sit next to Prime Minister Modi so that Chandrayaan’s “good vibes” radiated to him.
“By the time we reached the retreat, there was some talk about Chandrayaan. The next day (August 23, the day of the landing) we did a morning session and then the Prime Minister left to join ISRO (via video link By the second day, even within the BRICS, talks had shifted to Chandrayaan…” Mr. Jaishankar said.
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“I was in a room (attending a BRICS event while Vikram landed)… with a big screen in the corner. It was difficult to talk without being distracted,” said the minister. “At one point, President Ramaphosa said: Minister, you look like Chandrayaan is up there (pointing to the screen).”
“I think it had sunk into people’s imagination by then and I have to tell you that we were at a BRICS Plus event that night – so you had about fifty prime ministers and presidents from other countries – and the speech that President Ramaphosa said Chandrayaan was like a collective feeling…”
“He even said, ‘I’m going to sit next to Prime Minister Modi and I hope some of it happens to me…’
READ | Chandrayaan-3 landing is a success for humanity: Prime Minister Modi at the BRICS summit
The Prime Minister had previously given a briefing to other BRICS leaders after Vikram’s landing, thanking Mr Ramaphosa for his congratulations and saying “…my friend Ramaphosa has given high praise to the Indian moon mission. I I feel this since yesterday.”
After thanking Mr Ramaphosa, Prime Minister Modi said: “It is a matter of pride for us that this success is not accepted as a limited success of one country, but as a significant success of humanity.”
Mr. Jaishankar emphasized the ‘collective feeling’ of joy that Chandrayaan-3 had evoked and said, ‘That feeling was very strong and I remember at one point there was a long U-shaped table with 100 to 150 seats. stood up spontaneously, so that the prime minister had to pass by the table to receive the congratulations individually. You felt that this was not just India’s achievement.’
Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the moon meant India joined a select group of countries — the others being Russia (then the Soviet Republic), the United States, and China — that had completed a soft landing on the lunar surface; The landing site was also closer to the moon’s south pole than any other.
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Vikram has since also successfully deployed the six-wheeled Pragyan rover, which deploys scientific payloads and instruments to collect critical data from the moon’s surface and atmosphere before lunar night, which lasts 14 Earth days, sets in and the Indian moon mission forces to conclude.
