When the entire country was glued to the TV sets on the late night of September 6, not to watch a cricket match, but to watch the landing of Vikram lander on the south pole of moon, some bizarre reactions were seen from a certain section of people.
On that night, just 2 km short of lunar surface, the graphic showing the descent of the vehicle had stopped, and it took several minutes for ISRO scientists to analyse the situation and announce that it has lost contact with the lander.PM Modi was there at the ISRO command centre to watch the historic event, and during the tense moments when experts were trying to find out what had happened, he went off camera for few minutes.
This was enough for liebrals to claim that he has escaped when the mission has ‘failed’. Some even demanded that he should declare that mission has ‘failed’, even before ISRO released any statement. All those criticisms were proved false when the PM reappeared few minutes later, and talked to the scientists saying that the country is proud of them.
But the critics don’t stop trying, as now they have come out with another allegation. A video is being circulated on social media by some people, claiming that while PM Modi hugged and consoled the ISRO chairman in front of camera after the contact with lander was lost, he was emotionless and cold ‘off-camera’. The ‘off-camera’ visuals, which were beamed live on Doordarshan and relayed by all news channels, are from the night, while the ‘on-camera’ visuals are from the next morning, when the PM met the ISRO scientists before leaving Bengaluru.
https://twitter.com/GarvSeSecular/status/1170533889250484225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The allegation that PM Modi didn’t show any emotion after knowing the lander has crashed is entirely wrong, as the visuals are from the moment when the data has stopped coming, and ISRO had not announced anything. It was telecast live, where it was seen that chairman K Sivan had approached the PM and informed him about the current situation, moments after the visual showing the progress of the space vehicle had stopped moving. By that time nothing was confirmed, and scientists were looking at the data to determine what had happened. ISRO had informed that they were trying to re-establish contact with Vikram. It was not confirmed yet that the lander has been lost, and there was nothing to do apart from waiting for further information by ISRO.
https://twitter.com/pokershash/status/1170601389703098368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Although most probable reason was that the lander has crashed, the PM could not have assumed it and start consoling scientists before anything had been confirmed by the scientists themselves. He can express any reaction after it has been confirmed that the lander has failed. Therefore, to claim that the PM was cold towards the news is completely wrong, as the news was not confirmed at that time.
The following tweet gives a good example of the situation, when you can express concern but can’t start consoling before any bad news has been confirmed.
https://twitter.com/GabbbarSingh/status/1170603546183553024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Misleading video is not the only thing floating around to attack Modi on the Chandrayaan 2 mission. Some people also tweeted that Modi changed clothes when he was at the ISRO centre. Two photographs showing Modi in different clothes was used to make this claim.
But facts were ignored while making this claim, as both the images are from two different times, just like the video above. One photo is from the night, while the second photo where he is seen hugging ISRO chairman is from the next morning. After Modi talked to scientists after it was confirmed that contact with Vikram lander has been lost, Modi went to the hotel, and came back in the morning the next day. It is natural for normal people to wear different clothes on the next day, as the previous day’s clothes will get dirty. It is basic hygiene practice, but for liberals, that becomes a tool to attack Modi.