PM Modi
PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams, who is scheduled to return to Earth early on Wednesday after a nine-month stay at the International Space Station, and invited her to visit India. The letter, written on March 1 and sent through former Nasa astronaut Mike Massimino, was shared on X by Union science and technology minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday.
"Even though you are thousands of miles away, you continue to remain close to our hearts. The people of India are praying for your good health and success in your mission," Modi wrote. "After your return, we are looking forward to seeing you in India. It will be a pleasure for India to host one of its most illustrious daughters." In taking the lead to welcome Williams, Modi appeared to be making amends for his delay in 2007 in felicitating her after the Indian-American's first space flight in which she established a world record for women with four spacewalks totalling 29 hours and 17 minutes.
Then the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi waited for Williams to visit family in the state three months after her return to Earth to felicitate her. Media reports had then said he had steadfastly refused to acknowledge Williams's achievements purportedly because she was a cousin of his bête noire, Haren Pandya, former home minister of Gujarat. Pandya's father had held Modi responsible for his son's murder in 2003. Pandya was quoted in the media as claiming that Modi had held a meeting with bureaucrats and police officers during the Gujarat riots on February 27, 2002, and instructed them to allow "people to vent their frustration and not come in the way of the Hindu backlash".