'Greatest Poverty is Poverty of Aspiration': Anand Mahindra Schools BBC Anchor Over Moon Mission Dig

Investing in both toilets and space exploration is not a contradiction, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said as he lashed out over an old BBC video where the anchor questioned the need for India to spend a significant amount of money on its space programme.

The BBC video — which was a part of their coverage on the unsuccessful Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 — went viral on social media after India became the first country to successfully land Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole on August 23.

The anchor, while speaking to a guest on his show, can be heard saying in the video: “You know I’m going to have to ask you because some people are thinking about this. India, a country that lacks a lot of infrastructure, a country that has a lot of poverty. I think more than 700 million Indians don’t have access to a toilet. Really, Really, should they really be spending this sort of money on a space programme.”

Responding to the criticism, Mahindra said India’s poverty is, to a large extent, a consequence of colonial rule, which exploited the wealth of the subcontinent. He stated that the most significant loss suffered by India was not the Kohinoor Diamond, but its pride and belief in its own capabilities.

“Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact — is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction…”

The industrialist added that going to the Moon helped “restore our pride & self-confidence”. “It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration…”

India made history on Wednesday by becoming the first country to make a soft landing on the moon’s South Pole and only the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to land on the Moon.

Earlier, congratulating the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Mahindra took to the microblogging website X (formerly known as Twitter) and said, “Dhanyavaad, Thank you, @isro, for teaching us how to aim for the stars. Making us believe in our own abilities. Showing us how to deal with failure and use it as a platform to rise again. And above all, making us proud to be Indian.”