Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday announced the success of Mission Shakti through which India successfully tested its ASAT missiles. Since then, Congress politicians and Durbaris have gone overboard in their attempts to either downplay the monumental achievement or credit the Congress party for it.
A certain section has also resorted to twisting the former DRDO Chief, VK Saraswat’s comments in 2012 to claim that India had already acquired the capability during the UPA regime itself. Since then, Saraswat has credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving clearance to the program and asserted that the erstwhile UPA regime did not give DRDO the clearance for the project.
Now, former Union Defense Minister, A.K. Anthony has come forward and claimed that he had wasn’t aware of the ASAT program at all. Speaking to Republic TV, Anthony said, “I wasn’t aware if we were ready for this test under UPA. You can ask the Defence Secretary and check the records. I wasn’t told about this. I don’t want to politicise, I wasn’t aware of the space warfare programme.”
Anthony’s statement contradicts the entire narrative the Durbaris and Congress politicians were seeking to build. It’s a clear admission on his part that he had no knowledge about India’s ASAT program. It also appears rather incredulous that Anthony, the then defence minister claims he wasn’t aware if India was ready for the ASAT system considering the fact that the then DRDO Chief had stated it publicly that the building blocks were in place to carry forward with the program. He had also said that the DRDO did not receive clearance to pursue the program under the UPA regime.
