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Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party MP Sambhal Shafiqur Rehman Barq on Saturday alleged that there was a communal colour behind the move to name the Vikram lander's touchdown spot on the Moon as 'Shiv Shakti Point'.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Chandrayaan-3's landing spot would be named as 'Shiv Shakti Point' and the place where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon's surface in 2019 as 'Tiranga Point'.
"Why do they want to communalise everything?" asked the Samajwadi Party (SP) MP apparently hinting at the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The spot should have been named after former president APJ Abdul Kalam, he said.
'Former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who was a scientist, had laid its foundation, so if it has to be named, it should be after him. Hindu-Muslim colour should not have been given to this achievement,' Barq, the MP from Sambhal, told reporters here.
Modi made the announcement regarding 'Shiv Shakti Point' while congratulating and interacting with scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Karnataka capital Bengaluru.
He also declared August 23, the day the spacecraft landed on the Moon's south pole as the 'National Space Day'.