Ahead of Chandrayaan-3's landing on the Moon's south pole on Wednesday, actor Prakash Raj, on Monday shared a meme allegedly mocking India's Moon mission. His post did not go down well with many X (formerly Twitter) users and he faced severe backlash.
He tweeted a picture of a cartoon depicting a man in a vest and lungi pouring tea and wrote, "BREAKING NEWS: First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #just asking,” Several users found it derogatory and slammed the Raj for allegedly “mocking” Chandrayaan-3.
Prakash has now reacted to the criticism as he said that his post was in reference to an old joke from the era of Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969
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"Hate sees only Hate... i was referring to a joke of #Armstrong times.. celebrating our Kerala Chaiwala.. which Chaiwala did the TROLLS see?? .. if you don't get a joke then the joke is on you.. Grow up #justasking(sic)'', he tweeted.
Netizens have reacted to his clarification as one wrote, ''at least have courtesy to accept your mistake and apologise for same ?? how shameful a person could be to joke over our national pride !''. Another wrote, ''First of all this event is not for cracking joke. If u r cracking a joke here then the joke is on u only. I cant say u to grow up but yes Get Well Soon''. ''Please now don't justify your hatred towards the nation - I loved to see leftists also criticize your anti-national post. Apologies or leave,'' wrote another user.
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For the unversed, on July 14, the Chandrayaan-3 was launched into space by the LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and on August 5 it entered lunar orbit. It is scheduled to have a soft landing on the south pole of the Moon on August 23 at 6.04 pm.
