'Hanuman Ji was first astronaut': BJP's Anurag Thakur tells students in viral video. Watch

Anurag Thakur's comments come against the backdrop of India’s renewed momentum in space exploration. (File photo)

BJP leader and former Union minister Anurag Thakur told students that Lord Hanuman could be regarded as the “first one to travel in space,” urging them to look beyond school textbooks and draw inspiration from India’s ancient traditions.

The Hamirpur MP made the statement while addressing students at a PM Shri School in Una during the National Space Day celebrations on Saturday.

He later shared a video clip of the interaction on X, writing: “Pawansut Hanuman Ji… the first astronaut.”

पवनसुत हनुमान जी…पहले अंतरिक्ष यात्री। pic.twitter.com/WO5pG2hAqT

— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) August 23, 2025

During his talk, Thakur posed a question to the students: “Antriksh main yatra karne wala pehla kaun tha? (Who was the first space traveller?).”

The students, responding together, answered: “Neil Armstrong.”

Smiling, Thakur gave his own reply: “Mujhe toh lagta hai Hanuman ji the (I think it was Lord Hanuman).”

The five-term parliamentarian explained that India’s civilizational knowledge often remains ignored. “We still see ourselves in the now. As long as we do not know our thousands of years’ old tradition, knowledge, culture, we will remain the same as the British have shown us,” he said.

Appealing to both teachers and students, Thakur added: “I would like to request the principal and all of you to think out of the textbooks and take a look at our nation, our traditions, our knowledge. If you look at it from that direction, you will find a lot of things to see.”

His comments came against the backdrop of India’s renewed momentum in space exploration.

Earlier this year, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian astronaut to travel to space, four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s milestone journey in 1984.

Globally, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin remains credited as the first human to travel into space in 1961, completing a full orbit of the Earth during his historic 108-minute mission.