That is still a money argument though, right? Beyond the "is there necessary infrastructure for alternative project X so the diverted funds aren't wasted" ques

That is still a money argument though, right? Beyond the "is there necessary infrastructure for alternative project X so the diverted funds aren't wasted" question, the argument for me is: that time and those resources were spent in India, by India, and the result is an increased knowledge and capacity to leverage some highly technical skills and technologies. You don't add rocket scientists to your workforce by building schools, you do it by adding/increasing the capacity for such work. Being trained to do the work doesn't make the work to do, if that makes sense. I definitely agree that the question of "why is X needed when the first-order benefits of Y has such a larger impact" is relevant and important, insofar as X is the space program and Y is a collection of social programs.