Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing: Back in 2014, ISRO successfully became the fourth organisation in the world to insert its orbiter ‘Mangalyaan’ into the Martian orbit in the first attempt. The mission garnered massive glory for the country. But the feat was acknowledged in a rather racial way by the New York Times. The outlet issued a cartoon on the mission’s success, which offended many Indians.

The cartoon, by Heng Kim Song, showed India as a villager with a cow, who was standing and knocking at the door of the ‘Elite Space Club’. The people in the club were dressed in Western attire. The cartoon faced a massive protest, prompting an apology from the New York Times. But with India acing another space mission yesterday, August 23, netizens recalled the cartoon and took a dig at the US-based newspaper.

Cartoon by the New York Times.

ISRO on August 23, successfully soft-landed Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander Module on the South Pole of the Moon and became the first and the only nation to do so.

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Taking to the internet, people re-shared the old cartoon from 2014 and took a swipe at the New York Times.

Some also recalled the 2017 counter cartoon that was published by the Time of India, where the situation was in reverse. The cartoon was shared after the country successfully sent 104 satellites into space through a single rocket.

Cartoon by the Times of India.

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After the protest bach then, the New York Times apologised and its editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal gave an explanation on the matter. "The intent of the cartoonist, Heng Kim Song, was to highlight how space exploration is no longer the exclusive domain of rich, Western countries," he said.

"Mr Heng, who is based in Singapore, uses images and text - often in a provocative way - to make observations about international affairs. We apologise to readers who were offended by the choice of images in this cartoon," Rosenthal added.