As Gujarat village rejoices over Sunita Williams' return, govt stays quiet

Residents of NASA astronaut Sunita Willaims’ ancestral village in Gujarat’s Mehsana district burst into celebrations on Wednesday morning as a SpaceX capsule carrying her and her colleague Butch Wilmore splashed down off the Florida coast.

All eyes were on Williams’ safe return as residents of Jhulasan gathered at a village temple to view the event live on a television screen. As soon as she landed, residents celebrated the moment by bursting firecrackers, dancing and chanting ‘Har Har Mahadev’.

Williams has been in the thoughts and prayers of the villagers, who were eagerly awaiting her safe return.

Even as Williams was on her way back, the villagers gathered at the temple performed a yajna and offered prayers. They said they have been performing yajna and have lit up akhand jyot (eternal flame) on the premises for her safe return.

Strangely enough, the Modi government, for all its assertions of Gujarati pride, seems to have no plans to felicitate Williams when she visits the state again in October this year. “As of now we have not decided anything. It is too early to plan any programme,” a report in the Telegraph quotes BJP spokesman and Narendra Modi loyalist Vijay Rupani as saying.

The reason, according to the report, probably lies in Williams' family ties — her cousin Haren Pandya was the home minister and Modi’s rival within the state BJP, and a "rallying point for dissidents" before he was assassinated in 2003. His father Vitthalbhai Pandya had even blamed Modi for the death.

Williams has visited India at least thrice, including in 2007 and 2013, soon after her space missions, and has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2008. Her biological father Deepak Pandya, originally from Jhulasan, migrated to the United States in 1957, according to some reports, and 1965 according to others. Her mother Bonnie is of Slovenian descent, who remarried Michael Williams, whose last name Sunita adopted.

Vitthalbhai Pandya is reported as having said that Sunita wants to visit Gujarat in the first week of October. Apart from Somnath and Dwarka, she intends to also visit Kutch, where there is a space enthusiasts’ club run by girls keen to interact with her, as per the Telegraph report.

The last time she was in Gujarat was in 1998 when her late cousin Haren Pandya was elected MLA. His father Vitthalbhai said she had even campaigned for Haren and was part of his victory procession.

Sunita has been reported as taking a copy of the Bhagvad Gita, a Ganesha idol and samosas with her to space.

Gujarat's Congress-led Opposition had a few months ago wanted the assembly to adopt a resolution congratulating “Gujarat’s daughter”. But the suggestion was greeted by silence, the Telepgraph report states.

State Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil feels the state government should felicitate Sunita, while Krishnakant Vagharia, president of the Vishwa Gujarati Samaj, said he does not expect a “vindictive” Modi to felicitate Sunita. All that Rupani would say was, “We will decide what is to be done at the appropriate time.”

Jhulasan, however, has been alive with excitement ever since the news of her proposed return, after a delayed stay at the International Space Station (ISS) around nine months ago, trickled in.

Navin Pandya, her cousin, said that the villagers have been praying for her safety, taking care of the akhand jyot, the eternal flame that was lit up for her safe return soon after she went to space over nine months ago.

He said the villagers have planned a grand procession in her honour, accompanied by prayer chanting and fireworks to create a festive atmosphere similar to Diwali and Holi.

A procession will be taken out from the village school to the temple where the akhand jyot has been kept, with students joining the celebrations, he said. The akhand jyot will be immersed after the procession reaches the temple, he said.

“We have organised a procession with Sunita Williams’ photograph and will perform a dhun (chanting) at the temple,” said Pandya. He said the villagers are looking forward to inviting Williams to visit Jhulasan. Vishal Panchal, principal of Jhulasan primary school, said elaborate arrangements have been made for Wednesday’s celebrations.

Williams’ space mission was initially scheduled to last seven days but got extended due to a technical glitch. Her SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico, just hours after departing the ISS. Williams, who has completed 62 hours over nine spacewalks, holds the record for the most time spent spacewalking by a female astronaut.

With PTI inputs