Friends, I am back after 5 days vacations, which was quite necessary for rejuvenation.
Few thoughts on this last Thursday of Mar 2019.
As I purposely kept away from newspapers and TV during my vacations and after coming back, the first thing which caught my eye was the news regarding the launch of Anti Satellite Missile (A Sat) by Indian space authorities. The use of this missile is to destroy any satellite orbiting in the space. In the process, India joined the exclusive club of USA, Russia and China who possess this deadly capability. The satellite which was destroyed was launched into orbit about 3 months back for this testing purpose only. The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) Chief made the statement yesterday “ that while work on the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) was going on for years, the project only got the official go ahead about two years ago, and we got into mission mode only six months ago.”
The A Sat which was launched weigh approx 18 tonne, and the satellite which it destroyed weigh 740 kg and was flying in low earth orbit about 274 km away. It took just 3 minutes to destroy (after launch) the orbiting missile by hitting bang in the middle with an accuracy of few centimetres. It was completely indigenous project, from the missile to its sub systems, software and sensors, were all designed and manufactured in India.
More than 300 DRDO scientists started working on this project 2 years ago, when govt gave its go ahead signal. Only 5-6 people knew about the timing of the mission. As per DRDO this A Sat can strike satellite flying in the orbit up to 1000 kms.
PM Modi kept every one guessing, when he tweeted at 11.23 am that he will be addressing the nation very shortly.
This A Sat test has created another political face off. Instead of applauding effort , the opposition political parties started attacking the govt on the timing of this test and accused govt of playing politics. CPM & TMC complained to Election Commission (EC) that Modi’s address was a violation of the Electoral code of conduct. Opposition leaders also accused Modi of seeking political mileage. The EC appointed a committee of senior officers to look into the PM’s address in light of the model code of conduct. But the sources indicated that as the address was purportedly relayed via Namo TV and not DD or AIR, it may not be violation. The President of the main opposition party said “ Well done DRDO, extremely proud of your work”. He sarcastically added , wishing PM a Very Happy Theatre Day. A senior BJP leader hit back and said “ when a finger points to the moon, idiot points to the finger”.
As with Balalkot air strikes and the surgical strikes before, all the opposition political leaders, chose to restrict its praise to scientists and defence forces, while accusing the govt to play political. Uptil now no idiotic political person has asked the proof of this missile test.
My only contention is that during the code of conduct govt can not announce any welfare scheme for the people of the country, but why should the govt be restricted on announcing some achievements like the A Sat tests. Now suppose this Balalkot air strike would have happened during code of conduct, then should govt keep quiet and not announce the action taken by them. The contention of the opposition is that the govt should stop functioning during the code of conduct, which is not fair to govt. DRDO went into mission mode about 6 months back, when election dates were not announced. So as per opposition contention the mission should have been aborted when code of conduct came into practice. The Defence organisation can not function like this.
The problem is that the earlier political parties who were running the govt never faced situation like this, so they are making these kinds of statements. Another things most of the people like to go by the book, irrespective of national interest and national security.
Second news which caught my eye was-the actress Urmila Matondkar meeting Rahul Gandhi and joining Congress party. A fading actress , who has not acted in any known movie in last one & half decade joining the party who is finding difficult to get even their members to contest from some prestigious seats. It is being said that she may be asked to contest from Mumbai North constituency, where congress candidate and ex Mumbai Congress chief lost miserably in 2014 and was not ready to contest from the same constituency again. Let us wait and watch on the further development in this matter.
Awaiting for your comments/views/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
28th Mar 2019.
R. N. Mungale.
Opposition parties oppose for sake of opposition. This happens irrespective of who is in opposition.