TMC MP Santanu Sen grills Modi over ISRO Project and World Cup, Shehzad Poonawalla reacts

Trinamool Congress MP Santanu Sen on Monday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his sortie in a Tejas fighter jet on Saturday. The TMC MP launched a veiled attack on Modi attributing various issues to him, ranging from the unsuccessful ISRO project to India's defeat in the Cricket World Cup Final.

“I'm a little bit afraid when Mr Narendra Modi was very much there in the country, the ISRO failed. When Kangana Ranaut met Narendra Modi, her movie became a super flop. When Virat Kohli shook hands with Narendra Modi, he didn't get a century for three consecutive years. And finally, after winning 10 consecutive matches in the recently held World Cup, just because our Prime Minister went to that stadium, India got defeated in the final...I'm afraid that in no time this particular aircraft gets crashed,” said TMC MP Santanu Sen talking to reporters. Sen’s comes days after Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Panauti’ (bad omen) jibe and Mamata Banerjee’s ‘Paapi’ (sinner) dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi following India’s defeat against Australia.

The BJP has strongly criticized Trinamool MP Santanu Sen for his comments regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Tejas aircraft sortie and has demanded his dismissal. BJP’s Shehzad Poonawalla condemned Sen's statement, where he expressed a desire for the Tejas to crash, highlighting it as "anti-forces.” "While hating Modi and the BJP, today you are hating India's military and Indian Air Force so much that you are wishing them death. You are wishing for a crash of Tejas fighter jet,” said Poonawalla.

“What has happened to the Trinamool Congress? Mamata Banerjee, if you have even an ounce of patriotism and morality, you should expel Santanu Sen from the party with immediate effect,” said Shehzad Poonawalla, describing the Trinamool MP's remarks as a "new low" in national politics. The BJP urged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to take action, stating that if there is any integrity remaining in the TMC, they should remove Sen from the party.

Previously, the Congress’s Jairam Ramesh also hit back at the Prime Minister calling him the ‘master of chunavi photo-ops.’ “Tejas is yet another tribute to our indigenous scientific and technological capacity and capability that has been built up resolutely over the decades…The design for the Light Combat Aircraft was finalised six years later. Operational clearance was granted finally in 2011. There are, of course, a number of other key milestones as well. It doesn't cost the master of ‘chunavi photo-ops’ much to acknowledge the efforts and endeavours prior to 2014 that were essential to his claiming credit now,” said the Congress leader, taking to social media platform ‘X’.

Last Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a sortie in a Tejas fighter jet in Bengaluru as part of his visit to the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. "Successfully completed a sortie on the Tejas. The experience was incredibly enriching, significantly bolstering my confidence in our country's indigenous capabilities, and leaving me with a renewed sense of pride and optimism about our national potential," said PM Modi in a post on X.​