New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- Anurag Thakur, the BJP leader and former Union Minister, stirred reactions on social media after he said that Lord Hanuman could be considered the "first one to travel in space." During an event in Himachal Pradesh's school on August 23, the five-time parliamentarian made this controversial statement.

In the viral video clip, the 50-year-old can be seen addressing students on the occasion of National Space Day at a PM Shri School where he questioned, "Antriksh main yatra karne wala pehla kaun tha? (Who was the first space traveller?)." To this he gave his own reply, "Mujhe toh lagta hai Hanuman ji the (I think it was Lord Hanuman)."

X's community notes pointed to the error and provided a fact check: "Yuri Gagarin w...