India, Aug. 18 -- Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday lauded astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS), calling it a "powerful symbol" of India's human spaceflight ambitions and a crucial precursor to the upcoming Gaganyaan programme.

"Since the Opposition are not participating in the special discussion, let me say how proud all Indians are of the recent mission of Commander Shubhanshu Shukla to the ISS. It served as a stepping stone to our nation's own human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan," Tharoor said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier in the day, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju had urged opposition parties to join a special Lok Sabha discussion on Shukl...