Rahul Gandhi's presser tutored: BJP
Bengaluru, May 10: "Tutored and failed" is how the BJP on Thursday described the press conference addressed here by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and accused him of not answering the issues concerning the state's people.
"A desperate last-minute press conference that gave us nothing new about how and what they (Congress) will do for the people of Karnataka. A failed press conference that did not give us any clue or any answer to the number of questions raised by the state's people on the Siddaramaiah government's utterly dismal performance," Union Minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference here.
"It almost looks like a tutored press conference because many media persons were not even allowed to ask questions. Whenever a question was put... an effort was made to paraphrase it. This was a press conference more focussed on China and Pakistan, without responding to the local issues about which the corrupt Siddaramaiah government has no answer to offer," the Minister added.
"The Congress, its President, and the failed and corrupt Siddaramaiah government has no answer other than deflecting questions," he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party attack came soon after Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference here on the last day of campaigning for the May 12 Assembly polls.
Rahul Gandhi claimed that the BJP had restricted itself to mounting "personal attacks" on him and his party's leaders during campaigning and lacked seriousness about what they wished to do for public welfare if they returned to power in the state.
Goyal accused the Congress chief of not giving specific responses to issues that affect the people of Karnataka.
"He did not speak about corruption of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's government and his Ministers. He was not able to tell who is responsible for the highest numbers of farmer suicides in Karnataka. When he is talking of 'inamdar', he did not respond to where the Hublot watch came from and why it was given to the Chief Minister," he said.
The Minister, a BJP leader, said that Rahul Gandhi also did not talk of the communal divide the Congress is trying to create by seeking votes in the name of religion.
The Minister said that the Congress leader's response to a query reminded him of his other "epic interactions" that ranged from connecting MRIs across the country to solve health sector problems and even his remarks that the Dalits "need the escape velocity of Jupiter" to achieve success.
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Chinese astronauts return to earth safely after six-month stint in space station
Beijing, Nov 4: Three Chinese astronauts who spent six months developing China’s low orbit space station returned to Earth safely early Monday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
The capsule of the spaceship Shenzhou-18' carrying astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 1:24 am (Beijing Time).
The three astronauts, after staying in orbit for 192 days, were all in good health and the Shenzhou-18 manned mission was a success, the CMSA said.
Ye, the Shenzhou-18 mission commander, has become the first Chinese astronaut with an accumulative spaceflight time of more than a year, setting a new record for the longest duration of stay in orbit by a Chinese astronaut.
He served as a crew member in the Shenzhou-13 mission from October 2021 to April 2022.
"Chinese astronauts have flown to space in successive missions. I believe that the record of the duration in orbit will be broken in the near future," Ye said.
Another astronaut Li Guangsu said that they grew two types of plants -- cherry tomatoes and lettuce -- and they had harvested some lettuce leaves for food.
"Being able to eat fresh vegetables in space is truly a blessing. These green plants have also brought a touch of green and good cheer to our busy work," Li was quoted by state-run Xinhua news agency.
China launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship in April this year.
During the mission, the Shenzhou-18 crew utilised the scientific experiment cabinets and extravehicular payloads to carry out dozens of experiments in the fields of basic physics in microgravity, space material science, space life science, space medicine and space technology, Xinhua report said.
The three were relieved by another set of three Chinese astronauts, including a woman who docked with the orbiting space station on October 30.
China changes crew for the station every six months.
China built its space station after it was reportedly excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) over concerns that China's space programme is manned by its military, the People's Liberation Army, (PLA).
The two robotic arms of the station, especially the long one which has the ability to grab objects including satellites from space, drew international concerns.
Early this month China announced its plans for the further development of space programmes which included launching a manned lunar mission, construction of a lunar space station, exploration of habitable planets and extra-terrestrial life to expand its space programme in the next few decades.
