New Delhi: The Congress's fixation with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has clearly taken the proportion of a morbid obsession. The show of sycophancy has reached such a nauseating level that on Tuesday, the Congress, taking the lead of its bumbling president Rahul Gandhi, gave 'dynasty head' Jawaharlal Nehru credit for Mission Shakti's ASAT success.

India entered an elite club of space superpowers on Tuesday when its anti-satellite weapon struck down a live low-earth satellite. Only the US, Russia and China had managed to do this earlier. The success of Mission Shakti has significantly beefed up India's air defence.

“Well done DRDO, extremely proud of your work. I would also like to wish the PM a very happy World Theatre Day,” Gandhi tweeted, refusing to give credit where it is due.

The desperate Congress, checkmated by the Modi government, still tried to garner a share of the credit, ending up with a lame tweet that gave rise a lot of amusement on the microblogging site.

Also read: Desperate Congress takes swipe at PM Modi even for making India a space superpower

“We congratulate @isro & the Govt on the latest achievement for India. The Indian Space Programme established in 1962 by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru & the Indian Space Research organisation has always made India proud with its ground breaking achievements,” the Congress tweeted.

It is true that had the ISRO not been there, India's space programme would not have been a reality, but it is also true that had it not been established under Nehru, it would have been under some other Prime Minister. Also why the establishment of an organisation should be made out as a reason for a specific success defies logic.

Congress crony and historian of science and modern politics, S Irfan Habib, credited Nehru for building India's scientific and technological capability. However, he was castigated by author Rajeev Mantri, who exposed the hollowness behind the 'Nehru bhakti' of Habib and other Congress stooges.

Also read — An India that still bleeds: Understanding Nehru’s legacy

"This is an old, persistent lie. Nehru's policies gutted R&D in India. Had it not been for Raghunath Mashelkar's path-breaking reform of CSIR, when it was its DG (achieved because of AB Vajpayee's support), god knows where India would be today," Mantri said. Mantri had earlier pointed out that Nehru's focus on socialism and his visceral dislike for private profit had crippled numerous laboratories, and so it is not only that Nehru but several institutions, it is also true that he destroyed what he bulit.

What the Congress did not realise, or refused to realise is that it is not enough to create an institution, but sustain its quality. And that quality was sustained under Modi. India sent an orbiter to Mars, made at a cost less than the Hollywood movie Gravity. It also cost one-ninth of NASA's $671 million Maven Mars mission. Other achievements of the ISRO under Modi included sending 104 satellites into space in a single mission, the GSLV MK-3 and the proposed Gaganyaan human space flight mission.

Twitter had a field day, as the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family was rebuked and ridiculed. Here is a collection of tweets:

How long, one wonders, before Darbaris attribute the success of ASAT and #MissionShakti to Nehru.



I give them an hour. Maybe two. — Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) March 27, 2019

This is an old, persistent lie. Nehru’s policies gutted R&D in India. https://t.co/CUbactODDu Had it not been for @rameshmashelkar’s path-breaking reform of @CSIR_IND when he was its DG (achieved because of the support extended by Vajpayee), god knows where India would be today. https://t.co/E9bkTjAcgZ — Rajeev Mantri (@RMantri) March 27, 2019

Had our missile missed the target and hit Chinese space station instead, Congress and crony media would have attacked Modi for this massive failure. Since it's a success, they are giving credits to Nehru & ISRO.



This is not how things work. Accountability is a two way street. — THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) March 27, 2019

Nehru helped me to demonstrate theory of special relativity and famously expressed in my iconic equation, E=mc2, where E stands for energy, MC for Nehru.#ThankYouNehru #MissionShakti — Albert Einstein (@free__drinker) March 27, 2019

Thank god for Mountbatten who made Nehru who made ISRO who didn't make the ASAT but still... — Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) March 27, 2019

No one knows this, but the name INDIA is actually an acronym for Indira Nehru Duo’s Impressive Achievements! #CreditToNehru https://t.co/bc9p7pWAjk — Shefali Vaidya ஷெஃபாலி வைத்யா शेफाली वैद्य (@ShefVaidya) March 27, 2019

Nehru gave them scientific temper.



Yet all of them became paid Journalists & historians.



None of them could get a degree in science, engineering or medicine 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/MEsUT9CAFx — Eminent Intellectual (@padhalikha) March 27, 2019

A space arms treaty is being trashed out in Geneva. This time India won't be a have-not. Unlike when Nehru, who could have tested nukes in the 60s, but avoided it - the result being India is still dealing with the non proliferation ayatollahs decades later. — Harsh Gupta मधुसूदन (@harshmadhusudan) March 27, 2019