'Shameless': Actor Prakash Raj meme mocking Chandrayaan-3 mission sparks online outrage

Chandigarh, August 21

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Ahead of the expected touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander module on the surface of the Moon on Wednesday, Indians are keeping their fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, ahead of the important day, a tweet by actor Prakash Raj has not gone down well with a large section of X (formerly Twitter).

Prakash Raj’s sarcastic tweet included a caricature of a man cooling tea by pouring it to and fro between two mugs. Its caption read: “Breaking news: First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww (sic).”

BREAKING NEWS:-
First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #justasking pic.twitter.com/RNy7zmSp3G

— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) August 20, 2023

The post enraged netizens who termed the meme derogatory and urged him to show respect to the scientists responsible for India’s historic moon mission.

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi slammed Prakash Raj for his post calling it “shameful”.

I condemn Prakash Raj for this shameful tweet. Success of ISRO is success of India. #Chandrayaan3 #VikramLanderhttps://t.co/1SgClFGEPy

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) August 21, 2023

“I condemn Prakash Raj for this shameful tweet. The success of ISRO is the success of India. #Chyandrayaan3 #VikramLander,” Singhvi said in a post on X.

“You are mocking our scientists who put years of their lives to make this a success,” an X user wrote, slamming the actor.

Expressing dismay, another individual wrote, “You have stooped so low… feel ashamed that you are a fellow countryman !! I am proud of ISRO !! Jai Hind.”

Chandrayaan 3 is something whole of India must be proud of, irrespective of political ideology.

Know the boundary between political vs national trolling, else stick to wetting your pants in movies.

— Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Memes,🇮🇳 (@memenist_) August 20, 2023

“Chandrayaan 3 is something whole of India must be proud of, irrespective of political ideology. Know the boundary between political vs national trolling, else stick to wetting your pants in movies,” another user commented.

It was unnecessary. Some things are far above political ideology. Look you are melting faster than the ice. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

— Naveen (@_naveenish) August 21, 2023

Criticising the tweet’s unnecessary nature, another social media user wrote, “It was unnecessary. Some things are far above political ideology. Look you are melting faster than the ice. Wishing you a speedy recovery.”

Prakash Raj is known for his frequent criticism of the ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the Bengaluru Central constituency as an independent candidate. He lost the seat to the BJP’s PC Mohan.

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s ambitious lunar mission making a fresh attempt to land an unmanned mission on the moon.