Click to play videoAhmedabad: Sunita Williams’ week-long Indian odyssey began on a high note as the astronaut received a grand reception in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning.
Sunita’s first engagement was a visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram. According to her there's a common thread between Bapu’s teachings and what she learnt in outer space.
“Boundaries and limitations are there only in the mind. I realised this when I went in the space. Mahatma Gandhi knew this even without going in the space and I am proud to be his student,” Sunita said.
Sunita, a cousin of BJP leader and former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya who was murdered in Ahmedabad in 2003, will visit her ancestral home in Jhulasan on Friday.
She is expected to attend a number of programmes in Ahmedabad and elsewhere over the next five days.
Politics is the last thing the jubilant family wants at this time but Pandya’s family is now full of bitterness against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as they feel that the state government has not done enough to welcome her.
Meanwhile, the Congress missed no opportunity to cash in on Sunita’s visit and literally hijacked the function at Sabarmati Ashram with not a single BJP leader present.
“Narendra Modi has not allowed his party men to attend the function and it is unfortunate,” leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly, Arjun Modhwadia said.
Even when Sunita garlanded Pandya's statue no BJP leader was present except Mayor Amit Shah. But the family does not want the visit to be politicised.
“She is beyond politics. She believes only in humanity. She is a great human being,” Sunita’s uncle, Vitthal Pandya said.
If Sunita’s visit had anything to do with politics then the Congress stole the show on Thursday and the BJP was forced to remain a mute spectator.
For Sunita though, what seems to be more important is the reunion with her relatives. She had last visited the state in 1998.
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