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UPA govt did not give their nod to DRDO but now are patting their own back: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister said those patting their own back for India's strategic missile programme were doing so for wrong reasons.

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday accused the erstwhile UPA government of not granting scientists permission to build the country’s own anti-satellite missile, saying it lacked “capability and clarity”.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, he said when India had test-fired the Agni-V missile in April, 2012, then DRDO chief V K Saraswat had said that India could now develop an anti-satellite missile but the government had not given its nod.

Targeting the Congress, he said those patting their own back for India’s strategic missile programme were doing so for wrong reasons.

“If they want to rectify the Balakot (air strike) mistake, it is the opportunity for the opposition to do so and stand in support of our scientists,” he said, referring to the air strike on a terrorist camp in Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced that India had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite, describing it as a rare achievement that puts the country in an exclusive club of space super powers.


Also readModi govt pushes through A-SAT missile test that UPA had not permitted


 

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SourcePTI

4 COMMENTS

  1. Bloody Joker… My take on test firing Anti Satilite Missile
    Certain things you will not do… Even if you can do for the sake of diplomacy and for good and cordial relationship with other countries… Anti satilite missile is one of such thing. Three countries has tested it by projecting it as a peaceful mission to clear space of defunct satilites… Only a fool do such chest thumping. By the way feku may not be knowing, any country which has the capability of developing ballistic missile and has established space research program can easily do it with tweaking of existing missile systems… So in a nutshell DRDO has this know how long back… Infact DRDO has capability to develop ICBM which can reach US too but the thing is do we require to demonstrate it? Or should we do it?. What faku literally did was a test missile already kept in the storage was fired from DRDO test range to reap cheap political milage simply disregarding the unnecessary mistrust among friendly nations and no deterrence to adversaries. One more thing feku may not be knowing… Those three countries have already moved to developing High power laser based Anti Satilite weapon and all the west countries who have the capability and process ballistic missile technology also have such capability (Israel, France, UK, Germany etc) so there is no elite club as such. What is all feku wanted was to make gullible voters believe something great he has done… By addressing the nation in Churchill style

  2. Jaitley Ji (also for others who may have missed it), in case you have missed in 2012, reproducing it for your kind reading now – from India Today:

    “The successful April 19 trial of 5,500 km-Agni V Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile that Saraswat calls a “game changer”, is another step towards the capability to target objects in space. The missile scaled a height of 600 km before re-entering the atmosphere. “DRDO will field a full-fledged ASAT weapon based on Agni and ad-2 ballistic missile interceptor by 2014,” says a top government source who does not want to be named. This weapon is unlikely to be publicly tested.
    This was confirmed by Saraswat who says that India will not test this capability through the destruction of a satellite. Such a test risked showering lethal debris in space that could damage existing satellites. Instead, India’s ASAT capability would be fine-tuned through simulated electronic tests.”
    Today’s IT is, of course, part of the friendly media.

  3. If BJP wants to take credit be that be, why drag UPA and Dr Singh. If DRDO did not get green signal when they are ready, why Modiji took five years to give signal to launch it now in 2019 before election

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