As soon as Chandrayaan-3 set foot on the moon, people remembered the NYT cartoon, very funny

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In fact, the reputed American newspaper NYT published a cartoon in 2014 after the success of India’s ‘Manglayan Mission’. India shocked the world by achieving success in the Mangalyaan mission in a very economical budget. The NYT praised, but with a small heart. The newspaper published a cartoon about India in that day’s edition. In the cartoon, a farmer with a cow is knocking on the door of the room. It says – Elite Space Club. Two people in suits are sitting inside the room. Certainly he is a scientist of the western world. The caption of the cartoon reads, ‘India’s low-cost Mars mission is knocking on the doors of the elite space club.’

This cartoon was strongly opposed. Many accused the famous newspaper of being racist and mocking India after its spectacular feat in space. According to a BBC report, New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal later said in a Facebook post that “a large number of readers” had complained about the cartoon.

Andrew Rosenthal said, “The cartoonist, Heng Kim Song, intended to highlight how space exploration is no longer the preserve of wealthy, Western nations. Heng lives in Singapore. We use such cartoons for this purpose. We apologize to those readers. For those who were offended by the choice of photos in this cartoon.

Rosenthal clarified that Hang was in no way trying to kill India, its government or its citizens.

India became the first country to do so as Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon’s south pole on Wednesday. After this, Twitter users and netizens found the old NYT cartoon. Some users tagged the NYT and commented that it’s about time for a new cartoon. However, in the meantime, as the controversy escalated, the NYT apologized.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader Y Satish Reddy was also among those who trolled the NYT. Sharing the old cartoon on his Twitter handle, he posted- “You laughed questioning our ability. Today we silence you with our victory! Now go ahead and make a new cartoon.”

Some Twitter users shared an altered version of the NYT cartoon based on a Times of India reply from three years ago.

This cartoon was published in TOI in 2017. India then launched a record-breaking 104 satellites into space with a single rocket. In this, the NYT cartoon was flipped. Meaning the farmer was shown inside the room with the cow and was shown knocking over the two people who were earlier sitting inside the room. It was given the same caption – Elite Space Club.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It took 41 days to land on the surface of the moon. The lander landed on the moon at 6.04 pm on Wednesday.

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