Overview

• At a National Space Day event at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Una, Himachal Pradesh, the BJP MP told students he believed Lord Hanuman was the first to travel in space.
• Students had answered “Neil Armstrong” to Thakur’s question about the first space traveller, a mix-up left uncorrected as the historical record names Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
• Thakur urged students and teachers to look beyond textbooks and connect with India’s traditions, later posting the clip on X with the caption, “Pawansut Hanuman Ji… the first astronaut.”
• The video went viral with X community notes and users pointing to Gagarin’s precedence and to Article 51A(h), which calls for promoting scientific temper.
• DMK MP Kanimozhi condemned the remark as misleading for students, and as of Aug 25 there was no widely reported correction or retraction from Thakur.