Amidst claims and counter-claims by political leaders on the DRDO's anti-satellite missile test, the head of the defence research agency gave a fresh twist to the tale by saying the first discussion on developing such technology began only in 2014.
On March 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address, announced the success of India's anti-satellite missile test by naming it 'Mission Shakti'. The announcement of India’s entry to a select group of space powers had triggered a political battle, as both the BJP and the Congress came out with different claims. While the Congress claimed that the anti-satellite system mission was initiated by the UPA under the leadership of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP countered it, saying the UPA government never gave the permission for the mission.
In fact, the former chief of DRDO and now a member of NITI Aayog V.K. Saraswat came on record to say that DRDO had proposed building such an anti-satellite weapon to Shivshankar Menon, who was national security advisor during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime. “If the nod had been given at that point of time, we would have demonstrated this kind of capability earlier,” Saraswat said in an interview. Echoing Sarawat's view, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said scientists were denied permission to do so. “Those who are patting their backs should remember that our scientists had the capability to build anti-satellite missiles a decade ago, but the then government never gave them permission,” Jaitley had said.
But on Saturday, DRDO Chief Satheesh Reddy gave a completely different twist to story. "The first discussion on the ASAT test started in 2014. And the formal detailed presentation was made in 2016, and post that we took two years to develop the system," Reddy said in a presser, organised by the ministry of defence. It is learnt that Election Commission, on Friday, gave permission to the ministry of defence to hold a detailed briefing on 'Mission Shakti' after ten days of announcement by the prime minister.
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In response to a question on former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram's criticism on announcement of India’s anti-satellite missile capabilities, saying only a ‘foolish government’ can betray national secrets by making them public, the DRDO chief said,"Mission of this nature after test can not be kept secret. The satellite is tracked by many stations across the world."
The oppositions parties had also questioned the timing of the test as they claim that the government would take political advantage of it. But on the issue of timing, Deputy National Security Advisor Pankaj Saran said it is a technological and scientific test. "NASA is continuing its cooperation with India, including in the manned mission to space. We have had several statements from the US. As far as India is concerned, the official position is contained in the State Department statement," Saran said over the concerns raised by the United States.
On the issue of militarisation of space, Reddy said that the space has gained importance in the military domain. "When a country like India has done an exercise like this and shown capability of interception of a target, you have shown the capability for such operations. Best way of defence is to have deterrence."
On issue of fear of debris in space, Reddy claimed that simulation studies show that within 45 days, all debris of the Indian ASAT test will decay.
