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Fumed Indians continue to troll NYT over 2-year-old cartoon mocking their space agency

Remember the 2014 NYT ISRO cartoon?

Manish Singh

on February 17, 2017

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Some people just can't let it go -- and the New York Times is learning this the hard way.

Two years ago, when India's space agency ISRO put the Mangalyaan robotic probe into orbit around Mars -- and did so at one of the lowest budgets to date -- the New York Times published an opinion piece on the development with an arguably distasteful cartoon.

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The cartoon, which showed a farmer with a cow knocking at the door of a room marked Elite Space Club, drew immediate complaints from Indians as well as people from elsewhere.

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The NYT op-ed editor at the time had to issue an apology, clarifying that the message the cartoon tried to convey was how space exploration is "no longer the exclusive domain of rich, Western countries."

Two years later, ISRO has created yet another world record, this time sending 104 satellites with one rocket in one go. On the occasion, local newspaper Times of India has run a similar cartoon, this time with the Indian man and his cow inside the room, with people from foreign nations knocking the door with their rockets. Of the 104 rockets ISRO launched to the orbit, 101 of them were of other countries.

Twitter reaction from some people is as hysterical as ever.