Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anurag Singh Thakur on Saturday claimed that Hindu deity Hanuman was the first one to “travel to space”, sparking criticism from Opposition leaders.

The former Union minister made the remarks while addressing school students in the city of Una in Himachal Pradesh.

During his speech, Thakur asked the students who the first space traveller was. In response, several students mentioned the name of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon.

Thakur subsequently said: “Mujhe toh lagta hai Hanuman Ji the [I think it was Lord Hanuman].”

While Armstrong was the first person to have walked on the moon in 1969, Yuri Gagarin of the erstwhile Soviet Union was the first person who travelled on a crewed spaceflight in 1961.

The Hamirpur MP went on to say: “Till we do not know our traditions, knowledge and culture dating back thousands of years, we will remain limited to what the British have shown us.”

Thakur urged the principal of the school as well as the students to “think beyond textbooks and pay attention to our traditions and our knowledge”.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi on Sunday described Thakur’s claims as “deeply troubling”.

“Science is not mythology,” the Thoothukkudi MP said on X. “To mislead young minds in classrooms is an insult to knowledge, reason, and the spirit of scientific temper enshrined in our Constitution.”

Kanimozhi added that “India’s future lies in nurturing curiosity and not confusing fact with fable”.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Monday quipped in a sarcastic vein that he was thankful that Thakur did not say Prime Minister Narendra Modi also went to space with Hanuman, PTI reported.

“Maybe Anurag Thakur himself went with Hanuman ji,” Warring remarked. “These are the kinds of things Anurag Thakur can say; he speaks about anything.”

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