PM, BJP spreading misinformation, industries leaving Maharashtra: K'taka minister Priyank Kharge
Pune, Nov 15: Karnataka minister and senior Congress leader Priyank Kharge on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP were spreading misinformation and were not interested in development.
Kharge, the southern state's IT minister, said this "factory of misinformation" started when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and "was dreaming of becoming PM".
"The job of this factory is to spread misinformation, disinformation, fake news and give birth to lies. When he was CM, it was just a factory. By the time he became PM, the factory was elevated to a full-fledged industry," alleged Kharge, who is the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
"The PM and BJP have no interest in development, particularly Maharashtra's development. Earlier, Karnataka's competition was with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. But now we do not have any competition with Maharashtra," he claimed underlining the Congress' routine assertion that industries were shifting from the Eknath Shinde-ruled state.
Karnataka used to vie with Maharashtra for investment in IT and biotechnology sectors but that is not the case anymore as the latter is not in the race, he further claimed.
"Pune and Bengaluru were twin cities. What happened? How come Bengaluru has gone ahead? The reason is the PM is secretly moving projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat. I am not saying this. The Congress is not saying this. This is from government of India data," he claimed.
Kharge claimed the Tata Airbus project was supposed to be set up in Maharashtra but finally shifted to Gujarat.
"We also tried. When I insisted for Karnataka, I was told the project is going to Maharashtra because it had conducive ecosystem for the project. A project worth Rs 22,000 crore, how did it go to Vadodara (in Gujarat)?" he claimed.
How come the project went to Gujarat when Mumbai is the financial capital, Pune is the skill capital and a lot of talent is in Maharashtra, he questioned.
Kharge claimed the Vedanta Foxconn semiconductor project was supposed to be set up in Pune but went to Gujarat, and so did a medical device park.
"My appeal to the people of Maharashtra is to vote for the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Congress. If it goes to Mahayuti, then there will be Adani government here," he claimed, adding that NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had spoken about the billionaire industrialist being part of efforts to bring down the MVA government.
If people want a "puppet" government under which projects will leave the state and go to Gujarat, then they can vote for the Mahayuti comprising the BJP, Shinde's Shiv Sena and NCP, the Karnataka IT minister said.
When Modi and the BJP make promises, they call it "Modi ki guarantee" and "masterstroke" but when Congress announces schemes, they will call it "revdi" (freebies), he said.
"They just give catchy slogans but in reality work does not take place," Kharge said in a swipe at the BJP.
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Four astronauts return after historic lunar flyby, NASA now eyes landing on moon
Washington (PTI): Amid claps and cheers, four astronauts of NASA’s Artemis-II mission splashed down in the Pacific ocean after a historic flight to the moon – the first by humans in more than 50 years.
“The path to the moon is open but the work ahead is greater than the work behind,” Amit Kshatriya, Indian-origin NASA Associate Administrator told a press conference shortly after the Artemis-II crew returned to earth off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 eastern time on Friday.
The lunar flyby mission involving Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen was the first journey to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 when Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the lunar surface.
Rick Henfling, the flight director, said the Artemis II astronauts are “happy and healthy and ready to come home to Houston.”
Artemis II was the first crewed mission to utilise NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew module — demonstrating that the agency’s equipment can propel astronauts out of Earth’s orbit and bring them safely home.
"Yesterday, flight director Jeff Radigan said we had less than a degree of an angle to hit after a quarter of a million miles to the moon," Kshatriya told reporters.
"And their team hit it. This is not luck; that is 1,000 people doing their job," he said.
The mission flew 700,237 miles; its peak velocity was 24,664 m.p.h.; and the flight had an entry range of 1,957 miles but landed within one mile of its target, Henfling said.
NASA now aims to land humans on the moon where the space agency also plans to set up a habitat that would be the launchpad for future missions to Mars and beyond.
It was a triumphant homecoming for the crew of four whose record-breaking lunar flyby revealed not only swaths of the moon's far side never seen before by human eyes but a total solar eclipse.
They emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight one by one.
Henfling said his team 'breathed a sigh of relief' once the side hatch opened on the Orion Integrity after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
"We all breathed a sigh of relief once the hatch opened up, that's when we brought the team in," he said.
"We said a few words to the flight controllers, and then we turned around to the families and waved and gave them a thumbs up, and we all watched as each of their four astronauts got out of the spaceship and were hoisted up onto the helicopters. It was a great day," he added.
Henfling said his team felt "anxiety" as the four astronauts re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, but felt confident in all their training leading up the history-making lunar mission.
NASA said the Artemis III mission is "right around the corner" following its history-making journey around the moon.
"The next mission is right around the corner, and you know, we'll take the lessons learned from Artemis II," Henfling said.
"We learned a bunch on how to fly people in space, both from vehicle operations, but also from how to run a control room with a deep space mission. And when the time is right, we'll get back into specific training, and we've got a core group of about 30 flight directors, and they're all extremely capable.
"I think anybody who's assigned to that next mission is going to be as successful as us," Henfling said.
Amit Kshatriya is serving as the highest-ranking civil servant and a senior advisor to the administrator at NASA. He leads NASA's 10 centre directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators. He is also the agency’s chief operating officer.
Kshatriya previously served as the deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
LIVE: They are coming home.
— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026
Watch as the Artemis II crew returns to Earth, splashing down at around 8:07pm ET (0007 UTC April 11). https://t.co/n3vZE2rcFv
