'Modi hai to mumkin hai': Sena on India's A-SAT missile launch

Mumbai, Mar 28: Hailing India's successful anti-satellite missile test, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said it was possible because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being at the helm of affairs in the country.

Modi on Wednesday announced India demonstrated the 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. Lauding the country's achievement, the Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', said, "Modi hai to mumkin hai...on land and in space."

"Till yesterday, India was a nuclear power...(former) prime ministers - from Indira Gandhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee - worked very hard for the purpose. However, during Modi's tenure we have become a space super-power. It has all been done by our scientists," it said.

It said amid Lok Sabha poll campaign melee where leaders are indulging in mud-slinging and hurling charges against each other, Modi gave a "pleasant news" of the success of scientists, even as there was an unprecedented suspense over what he was going to announce in his address to the nation.

After the government's demonetisation decision in November 2016, there was a lot of curiosity among people, who on Wednesday waited with bated breath to listen to Modi's address, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

"Some thought Indian jawans again struck Pakistan, killed (JeM chief) Masood Azhar, brought his body here and dumped it in the Arabian sea off the Gujarat coast," it said.

Another speculation was that fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi were brought back together overnight in the same plane to Delhi.

There were also talks that fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim was captured and brought either to Mumbai or Delhi. Some even went on to think that to counter Congress president Rahul Gandhi's scheme of depositing Rs 72,000 annually in bank accounts of poor families, Modi's promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh into people's accounts was being reshaped, it quipped.

"However, contrary to the expectations, Modi's announcement of the anti-satellite missile being successfully tested made the country proud," said the Sena, which is an ally of the BJP at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

It noted that Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan were launched into the space in 2008 and 2013, respectively.

The Marathi publication also recalled that key institutions like the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were set up during the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's tenure.

"Scientists working there have ensured the Indian flag flies high in space," it said.

PTI