Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought “bad luck” to ISRO. (File) Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought “bad luck” to ISRO. (File)

Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought “bad luck” to ISRO when he came to Bengaluru to witness the landing of Chandrayaan-2 leading to the space agency losing contact with the lander ‘Vikram’.

“PM came to Bengaluru to give a message that he himself was landing Chandrayaan-2, scientists worked hard for 10-12 years, he came just for sake of advertisement,” ANI quoted Kumaraswamy as saying.

The Janata Dal (Secular) leader also alleged that PM Modi came to the ISRO control centre only to grab the spotlight. “Once he (Modi) stepped in ISRO Centre, I think he became bad luck for scientists,” ANI quoted Kumaraswamy as saying.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Chandrayaan-2 lander was supposed to land on the South Pole of the lunar surface on September 7 but lost contact with the control centre 13 minutes after it began its descent.

India’s dream of being the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon remained unfulfilled, however, it accomplished 90-95 per cent of the mission objectives, the space agency had said.

In an address that was broadcast live hours after ISRO’s plan to soft-land Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram module on the lunar surface did not go as per script, Modi told ISRO scientists that the nation was proud of them and stood with them. After his address, Modi gave a long and tight hug to the visibly disappointed and emotional ISRO chief, K Sivan.

“We came very close but we need to cover more ground in the times to come. Learning from today will make us stronger and better. The nation is proud of our space programme and scientists. The best is yet to come in our space programme. There are new frontiers to discover and new places to go. India is with you,” Modi said.

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