#PollVault: A Challenge for the EC as Charges Fly Over Timing of ASAT Test

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Bhubaneswar: Given how heavily it relies on occupying media space for its campaigns, the Bharatiya Janata Party hadn’t had a good run this week. Stories of the Congress party’s poll promise, NYAY, that guarantees a minimum income for the poor, or the opposition’s exposé of an alleged “BJP worker” exchanging crores after demonetisation, dominated headlines over the last few days.

On Wednesday, the saffron party sought to overturn the trend after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi occupied almost an hour of airtime. In a live address to the nation, the prime minister decided to announce himself that India conducted Mission Shakti – its first-ever test of an anti-satellite weapon (A-SAT) in outer space – successfully on the morning of March 27.

With the parliamentary polls just around the corner, Modi showcased the event also as a political success of his government. He claimed that India is in the league of the big three – Russia, the US and China – after the test, and called it a “big milestone”.

Although he said that the country is proud of its scientists, Modi didn’t let the scientists do the talking. Conventionally, such technical progress of India’s capability is announced by the concerned space scientists.

Also read: BJP is Replicating the Shiv Sena Model in Assam. This Should Worry the AGP 

Headlines grabbed by sheer political will, BJP leaders soon took to Twitter to congratulate the prime minister for his “vision” and scientists at the DRDO and ISRO for “technological advancement”.

The prime minister’s announcement was used by the saffron netas to up the national security pitch, an electoral plank the BJP is heavily banking on in its campaigns.

The news agency PTI and some television channels aired the views of former ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair claiming in the light of the test that India had developed A-SAT capability back in 2007, but was restrained to test it owing to a lack of political will. While his statement puts the then UPA government in the dock, the media reports conspicuously failed to mention that Nair is now a BJP member and that his statement could have a political tinge.

Similarly, many reports quoted former DRDO boss V.K. Saraswat as blaming the UPA governments for delaying the A-SAT programme, but did not mention that the scientist has always been seen as a supporter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP.

As a political tussle ensued over the issue, the prime minister’s televised announcement had an almost immediate political and diplomatic impact.

Opposition’s attack on BJP

Opposition leaders were quick to congratulate scientists and public institutions like the DRDO and ISRO but fired at the BJP for using the issue for electoral gains. At one level, they suspected the timing to test India’s A-SAT capabilities days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. And at another, they charged the government with deliberately trying to bury issues like rising unemployment and rural distress by using A-SAT as a smokescreen.

Here is how the Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a dig.

Others, too, did not let go of the opportunity.

Many opposition leaders, including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, alleged that the prime minister’s address could be a violation of the model code of conduct (MCC) that has been enforced after the election commission’s announcement of the Lok Sabha polls earlier this month.

Diplomatic impact

China and Pakistan – both of which have had a rough relationship with India under the Modi government – responded to the A-SAT test soon. Both asserted that space was universal heritage and released statements against the militarisation of outer space.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the test was not directed against any country and that it stood firm in opposing the weaponisation of space, a claim many experts disagree with.

A test for the Election Commission?

Amid a flurry of complaints, the Election Commission of India appointed a committee to probe whether the prime minister’s address violated the MCC or not. Many former election commissioners, however, felt that it was a classic case of MCC violation. Like the opposition parties, they also questioned the urgency of such a test ahead of the polls.

The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) asked whether the the prime minister sought permission from the ECI before he made the speech. Some reports claimed that that ECI may not have known about Modi’s announcement at all.

Also read: In Supreme Court, EC Criticises Modi Govt’s Electoral Bonds and Foreign Funding Tweaks

Recently, several opposition leaders have raised objections to the way government officials like NITI Aayog’s vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar have openly criticised the Congress for promising NYAY. They also objected when Kalyan Singh, who holds the constitutional position of the governor of Rajasthan, appealed to people to bring Modi to power again.

The leaders thought that the upcoming elections were as much a test of neutrality for the election commission as it is for the government officials who are not supposed to take political sides.

Meanwhile, the ECI issued a show-cause notice to Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday.

In other news

Speaking of publicity stunts, the latest Facebook figures show that pro-BJP pages on the social media platform have spent the maximum amount – Rs 53 lakh in a week between March 17 and March 23 – on advertisements. Some of the pages like “‘My First Vote For Modi’ also lured voters with freebies. Of all the parties, BJP-supporting pages top the political advertising spending list.

At a different political stage, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi hinted that she may contest the Lok Sabha polls. “I haven’t decided on whether to contest elections or not, but if the party wants me to contest elections, I will,” she said at Lucknow.

The bad-blood between the opposition and the BJP took yet another leap when Mamata Banerjee declared in her party manifesto that Trinamool Congress would initiate a high-level probe on demonetisation. She also said that she would like the probe to a part of the united opposition’s common minimum programme that is in works currently.

The latest actor to join the political fray on Wednesday was Bollywood’s Urmila Matondkar. She became a member of the Congress and is most likely to contest from Mumbai North Constituency.

Over the last month, a string of actors – Bengal’s Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan and Dev, Prakash Raj, television stars Shilpa Shinde and Arshi Khan, Anubhav Mohanty from Odisha, Sapna Chaudhary from Haryana – have become a part of active politics.

Their respective parties are most likely to field them to take on opposition’s heavyweights. A good case in point is Anubhav Mohanty, the Odia superstar who the ruling Biju Janata Dal has nominated to take on rebel leader Baijayant “Jay” Panda in Odisha’s Kendrapara seat. Panda had recently joined the BJP after a year-long bitter tussle with chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

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Author: Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta is Political Affairs Editor at The Wire, where he writes on the realpolitik and its influences. At his previous workplace, Frontline, he reported on politics, conflicts, farmers’ issues, history and art. He tweets at @AjoyAshirwad and can be reached at ajoy@cms.thewire.in.