Aug 24, 2023

‘We may fail, but we also rise higher’: Desi netizens slam old NYT cartoon after Chandrayaan-3 landing ‘We may fail, but we also rise higher’: Desi netizens slam old NYT cartoon after Chandrayaan-3 landing Chandrayaan-3 landing on the Moon: As evinced by the reactions, following Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the Moon, social media users have neither forgotten nor forgiven NYT’s racist cartoon. Chandrayaan-3: Social media users dig up old NYT cartoon to take a dig at them SUMMARY The NYT cartoon had mocked India's achievements after the low-budget Mangalyaan mission 'We may fail, but we rise higher,' said social media users to NYT Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing: Hours after The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) Moon mission landed on the lunar surface , desi social media users dug up the old, controversial cartoon published by New York Times (NYT) following India’s budget mission to Mars, Mangalyaan, in 2014. The cartoon showed a mustachioed Indian man, clad in a turban and dhoti, along with a cow, knocking at the door or a room with two Englishmen clad in tuxedos and reading a paper with the headline ‘India’s Mars Mission’. The room had the words ‘Elite Space Club’ printed on the windowpane. The cartoon was widely criticised as racist and mocking India’s achievements. The newspaper had later issued an apology. But apologies mean little when true sentiments reveal themselves. As evinced by the reactions, following Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on the Moon, social media users have neither forgotten nor forgiven NYT’s racist cartoon. For instance, Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO of Edelweiss AMC, wrote that India could fail but it also rises. “This comic strip on the left was published by the same group that wrote the article on the right,” she said in a post that had images of the old cartoon and the headline of NYT’s article on Chandrayaan-3’s landing. Radhika Gupta's post on Chandrayaan-3 Entrepreneur and investor Kunal Bahl, who shared the original NYT cartoon along with Times of India’s rebuttal by cartoonist Sandeep Adhwaryu that showed a group of well-dressed men with rockets knocking on the door of the same ‘Elite Space Club’ that now has a mustachioed Indian man in a turban and dhoti, along with a cow, reading a newspaper. While the original TOI cartoon showed the Indian man reading the newspaper with the headline ‘India Launches Record 104 Satellites’, the cartoon that Bahl shared had the headline: India first to land near south pole of Moon. Kunal Bahl on Chandrayaan-3 Senior VP at Kotak International, Prasad Subramaniam, shared the cartoon along with a snippet of a new NYT article that called Chandrayaan-3’s achievements “even sweeter”. Life comes full circle, said Subramaniam. Prasad Subramaniam's post on Chandrayaan-3 “Close to a decade back, a cartoon showing India's space ambitions was trolled for having racist overtones. The international publication apologized, but the hurt over the cartoon kept simmering and is again doing the rounds as India celebrates the successful landing on the Moon and has now joined the 'elite' club,” said Rajiv Banerjee, Group Head - Corporate Communications at Piramal Enterprises Ltd, who shared a self-drawn sketch, an iteration of the NYT cartoon. Rajiv Banerjee on Chandrayaan-3