The fizz that finished in 10 minutes, Prime Minister’s prime time slot

New Delhi: As surprising and nail biting the wait about
PM’s abrupt announcement of addressing the nation was, same was about the issue
he would talk on, on the morning of March 27. This time would it be the bank or
the bunker, was the joke on twitter. The announcement was tweeted by the Prime
Minister himself on his twitter handle of chawkidar narendra modi. People stood
nervously, with fingers crossed at the news that spread like fire.
Interestingly
on the completion of the telecast a
known media personality
tweeted, ‘Phewwww! It’s a spacy thingy. Your money’s safe, folks, go back to
work.’
Barely 2 weeks before elections PM Modi makes an
announcement of India’s capability of destroying satellites in space by ASAT’s
Mission Shakti. The announcement followed a Cabinet Committee on Security
meeting in the afternoon of 27 March.
It was indeed a great feat and a welcome news that
India had successfully achieved the mission and was the fourth country in the
elitist list of nations to have acquired this capability. Hats off to DRDO,
ISRO and its scientists. The nation salutes them.
The opposition Congress jumped in to claim that it was
in 2012 during UPA rule that the blocks of the mission were built and that the
scientists of DRDO and ISRO already had the expertise then.
Just a couple of days ago Congress had announced
‘’Nyay’’ Niuntam Aay Yojna, Minimum Basic Income to fight poverty in the
country which offers Rs 6000 monthly to 20 % of the poorest families of the
country, Rs 72,000 yearly to the poor. Were PM and his team forced to think of
a counter narrative at this crucial time when the voter can still be
manipulated!
Seriously, the people of the country on the eve of
voting a new dispensation have issues that pertain to their daily livelihood.
Its about unemployment, its about jobs, about farmers suicides, about women
safety, about poverty, cow vigilantism. After Pulwama and Balakot the issue of
nationalism is seen no more of immediate concern to the semi urban and rural
populace across the country. Will the narrative of nationalism that Prime
Minister Narendra Modi seems to be pitching in his address to the nation hit
the poor, daily wagers, farmers, the landless, labourers, small businessmen etc!
Remember that india’s electorate is highly divided and opiniated. Local issues
resound more during elections.
Twitter machine set rolling with dissection and thread
baring of the announcement, trolling notwithstanding. So was this something
very new. Why did Prime Minister choose this day, 2 weeks before election’s
first phase, to address the nation, which is not too often by the PM that he
is.
With all the leading luminaries of Modi government
leaving no stone unturned singing peons about Prime Minister’s outstanding
vision and India’s feat some of them were also accompanied with best wishes for
the elections. The likes and retweets reached thousands in a minute.  Some interesting tweets are worth a notice which in a way defines the mood
of the nation.
A leading lawyer Prashant Bhushan tweeted, ‘’As we waited
with baited breath for Modi’s grand announcement on national TV & RADIO on
the eve of elections, Modi chose to announce DRDO& ISRO’s decade old work
on an anti satellite weapon as his new ‘surgical strike! Clearly it will now
provide 10 cr jobs to our people!’’
Congress
leader and legal eagle Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted, ‘Wonder how many PMs how
many times in last 70 yrs would schedule an address to the nation in midst of
elections for space achievements. Hope it does not betray nervousness or
desperation re impending results.’
Siddharth Vardhrajan, of The Wire tweeted, ‘All I can
say is for all his talks of having been a great prime minister, chawkidar
Narendra Modi is looking pretty shaky if he has to lean on the IAF, the army
and now DRDO to look for some accomplishments barely weeks before the elections.’’
‘’Pretty blatant violation of the spirit of model code of conduct, if not the
letter. Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt on the timing of the ASAT
test, the fact that Modi choose to make this announcement himself gives the
game away,’ he says in another tweet. 
Akhilesh Yadav, ‘Today narendra modi got an hour of
free TV & divert nation’s attention away from issues on ground-unemployment,
rural crisis & women security-by pointing at the sky’’
Shekhar Gupta said, ‘’Fact is India has
acknowledged and reported ASAT capabilities for some years now, ISRO-DRDO have
done a brilliant job & deserve congats. But this isn’t Pokaran 3. Two weeks
before voting, this is odd.’’
Rahul Gandhi tweeted, ‘’Well done DRDO, extremely
proud of your work. I would also like to wish the PM a happy World Theatre
Day.’’
Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted, ‘Today was one such day when
PM could have given the space/def scientist their moment in the sun to make the
announcement. Or does election time =TV time!’’
Shashi Tharoor tweeted, ‘’The news that NaMo was to
address the nation on TV set off a minor panic amoung those who recalled the
last time. Many honest people ran to ATM’s to withdraw money  & dishonest ran to banks to deposit cash.
Pity those who, at the months end had 0 to deposit or withdraw.’’
Mamata Banerjee questioned, ‘What was the need for
Modi at the time of election to violate the model code of conduct to take
credit? Does he work there? Is he going to space?’’’
That’s actually the reality check.
   
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  1. Very well written article, however the views of only anti Modi gang and opposition are given. No doubt it is the achievement of the Scientists however it required sanction of PM to carry out such a test. The capability existed earlier also but the previous regime lacked the guts to grant such sanction. It is something like carrying out surgical strike, army used to carry out such strikes earlier also but official line was always of denial where as he announced to the world and got it carried out simultaneously at many places. The air force strike was even much bolder action, getting it done in Pak and not POK. The restrain of crossing LC by AF during OP Vijay (Kargil) costed us many lives. Grant that much to him. No doubt the step taken by him was that of desperation but he is left with no option when everyone in opposition got together to oust him. They too have one Agenda , Modi hatao. Instead of giving workable solution to the problems the Nation is facing they are promising moon. Five years is not enough to correct past ills ….let's be fair to him

  2. Definitely opposition will throw their stones in many ways wheather it is election or something else…but this is one progress card n great achievement by DRDO n ISRO….!So at least prime minister appreciated for the job….how does it matter ….but yeah definitely Mamta didi is feeling very low n insecure about space journey of Modi….🤣

  3. Priti Prakash presented well articulated synthesized view of some political parties gasping for survival and the pretitute. Wouldn't rather more space to dwell on it's credibility or their forgaettable remarks.Cartloads of analyses exist on work and wworkables related to Modi Govt- be they infrastructure development, reigning in of terrorism, swachh Bharat, monetary compensation to Farmers, housing, electricity, health care, insurance or plethora of social welfare schemes Modi Government is heads and shoulders above any other previous Government mostly beset in corruption, coalition Dharma, policy paralysis, mayhem all around, bringing shame to name of our nation.
    Leadership is about vision, decisiveness, sincerity of purpose and above all being one with it's people – feeling their pain sharing and caring for their concerns. Modi Government once again comes off trumps on that score too emerging tall above canopy of opposition leadership. Jyoti Basu said of Mamtadi "She's voilent kind of woman". Recent episodes of violence and that in the name Nationality Register is much to recent to escape the public scrutiny..
    Give credit where credit is due in the name of fairness.

  4. Makes a good reading. States facts. However, their intrepretation is perhaps not in line with my thinking.

    Undoubtedly, the "mahagathbandgan" was spooked by the warning and the announcement of the ASAT. They have displayed total lack of appreciation of geopologeopo realities. The ASAT is a BIG deal. We would have been left behind as we were in NPT, MTCR, et al.

    Yet, as I mentioned at the outset, very well articulated point of view.

  5. A balanced article displaying politics in all national level decisions . Is there requirement of politicizing every thing . Politicians are exploiting poverty and poor quality of education . We need political leadership Institute like IITs/ NDA . Let them slog like NDA to be a political ldr. Col Laxmi Narayan

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