Congress leaders rush to claim credit even after delaying ASAT program

In a major announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India has emerged as a major space power and developed an anti-satellite weapon system. Speaking of the latest achievement of India’s space program, PM Modi said India has shot down a live Lower Orbit Satellite (LOS) 300 km away from the ground in the lower earth orbit. Newly developed anti-satellite weapon, A-SAT was used for this mission. In a mega leap in India’s space power, Codenamed “Mission Shakti”, the mission has emerged as a big success. PM Modi further stated that this mission was achieved in only 3 minutes. This is a big leap in India’s national security and India became the fourth nation besides the US, China and Russia to posses such technology.

However, the Congress and other opposition parties along with the mainstream media and ‘elite’ journalists, without any delay, came up to give the credit of it to the grand old party and its leaders. In his tweet, Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress party, Ahmed Patel wrote, “The UPA government had initiated the ASAT program which has reached fruition today I congratulate our space scientists & the visionary leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh”.

In a similar note, the bigoted CM, Mamata Banerjee wrote, “There is no great urgency in conducting and announcing the mission now by a government past its expiry date. It seems a desperate oxygen to save the imminent sinking of the BJP boat. We are lodging a complaint with the Election Commission.”

Another, former Congress MP from Unnao, Annu Tandon wrote, “Congratulations to our space scientists for adding another feather to India’s cap. It was Jawaharlal Nehru vision that has made India a space giant. I am very happy that ASAT programme was launched under the visionary leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh.”

Tehseen Poonawalla, a relative of the Congress president, tweeted, “To be fair Mission Shakti is actually due to the vision of Nehru and his insistence on scientific studies. Had we followed a Chowkidar’s vision? Today the PM Address to Nation would be cows possess powers that can destroy spy satellites.”

Following these leaders, the left-liberal journalist, Sagarika Ghose wrote, “From the launch of Aryabhata in 1975, ISRO Missions have been India’s pride. Time to again remember Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai and the great scientists of India’s space programme, one so passionately begun by Jawaharlal Nehru, champion of scientific thinking.”

Although, these leaders and journalists took toTwitterr to praise the Congress and its leaders but forgot that it was the Congress party who delayed the development of ASAT technology. After the successful launch of Agni-V missile in 2012, in an interview, the then DRDO chief VK Saraswat had stated that they could develop an Anti-Satellite technology if the government approved it. “An anti-satellite system requires a good boost capability. Something like 800 km (into space). If you can reach that and have the guiding capabilities it can be done. The Agni V has demonstrated the boost capability,” Saraswat said, adding that a kill vehicle could be attached to the missile to target a satellite. 

Defense analyst Shiv Aroor too tweeted regarding this. In his tweet, he wrote, “Telling comment in 2010 by then DRDO India chief VK Saraswat, who told that India had tech necessary for anti-satellite weapon, but that the country didn’t ‘require‘ a platform at that time & ‘repercussions’ were a consideration.”

In a latest interview with ANI, former DRDO Chief and NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat stated, “If today you want to have the deterrence capability that if adversaries, that means nation across the world, want to militarise the space, India has the technological capability to match them.”

It is shameful for the Congress party to delay such an advance weapon technology. They had done the same with the accusations of Rafale fighter jets. It is clear that India has been able to achieve an amazing milestone by entering the elite club of countries that boast of the cutting edge ASAT (Anti-Satellite) weapon technology under PM Modi’s leadership. The brains behind this mission deserve to be applauded for achieving this huge milestone.