Former Bigg Boss contestant claims ISRO scientists not paid salary for 3 months, gets fact-checked by PIB

Former Bigg Boss contestant and political commentator Tehseen Poonawala recently claimed during a podcast that ISRO scientists have not been paid salaries for the last 3 months. Poonawala has now been fact-checked by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government's nodal agency for disseminating information on print and electronic media.

In a podcast with Youtuber Beer Biceps aka Ranveer Allahabadia, Poonawala said, “We are very proud of ISRO, It’s a great organisation. Three-month salaries have not been paid, and feel free to fact-check me on this.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), PIB noted that the claim made by Poonawala was fake and that ISRO scientists are paid their salaries on the last day of every month. 

The former Big Boss contestant was also criticized by his brother and BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala on the viral claim. In a post on X, Shehzad Poonawala wrote, “Since you offered to be “fact checked” Could you kindly elaborate on the names , designation of any 10 “ISRO scientists” (just 10) who haven’t been paid salaries (by the Modi govt) in the last 3 months , as claimed by you (& the Congress Jamaat)? Your video is extremely clear. Kindly back it up with facts.”

However, Poonawala has now clarified his stance and claimed that the issue was in fact not about the payment of ISRO scientists but of some engineers who worked on the Chandrayan 3 project, he wrote on X, “To all my SM fam. In the podcast with @BeerBicepsGuy I said it was scientists who worked on Chandrayan 3 were not paid salaries for 3 months. The fact was, it was, as per reports engineers who are also professionals! The context of my talk was non payment of salaries for professionals! The news articles for the same exist and the said media outlets stand by them ..so can we please focus on the larger message ..”