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The thing was on its way to the Moon already by that time. The mission has been a long time making, it's pretty disrespectful to the effort of all the scientists to limit it to just distraction from Kashmir. Especially since it isn't as if showing an interest in space is a first for Modi.

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Modi’s been in power for years. This is an initiative started while he was in office.

My point isn’t that it’s a distraction, but that it’s also about building party power. Kashmir is just the brightest, clearest signal regarding the goals of his administration.

Edit: While the push to complete it came in 2015, it was (see poster below) in the works as far back as 2007, and I was mistaken to think it’s directly attributable to Modi.

Chandrayaan 2 was approved in 2008 by the UPA government of Manmohan Singh. The mission was planned for 2012-13, with Russia to provide the lander. Russian delays forced ISRO to start development on its own lander in 2015.

It's just lazy to lay every action at Modi's feet.

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