DD, AIR respond to Election Commission's queries on PM Modi's address

Current Affairs

After the Election Commission (EC) wrote to Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) to gather more information on the feed of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address on India successfully testing an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, the state-owned brodcasters have sent their replies. The EC hopes to conclude its examination of the matter by Friday. However, the EC officials said no explanation had been sought from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the matter.

They also said the PMO did not approach the EC before Modi’s address to the nation.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to complete the examination of the matter soon. We are hoping to complete it by Friday. AIR and Doordarshan have responded. We are examining their response,” Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said. When asked whether there was any intimation or permission sought by the PMO, he replied in the negative. “This issue requires analysis of what really happened. We have collected various facts related to the matter. There are three aspects, the model code of conduct (MCC), the law, and the media. We have written to AIR and Doordarshan to ask what was the source of the feed, and we are going into the entirety of the matter to see whether there was violation of the MCC,” Saxena said at a media briefing on Thursday. Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha was also present.


 After the PM’s announcement on ‘Mission Shakti’, the EC had formed a committee of officers to investigate the speech with regards to the MCC. Saxena heads that panel.Saxena was also asked whether pending the EC’s decision, the PM was allowed to speak on Mission Shakti in his political rallies, as he did in Meerut on Thursday, to which the official replied that clarity will only be given once the panel had made its decision, and each supposed breach of MCC was a separate matter.

Mission Shakti: India's anti-satellite test sends a stark message to China

Current Affairs

One month after an ageing Indian Air Force jet was shot down in a dogfight with neighboring Pakistan, New Delhi has demneighbouring new weapons capability aimed at another, more powerful geopolitical rival: China.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a national address to announce India had “established itself as a space power” by sending an indigenously designed ballistic-missile interceptor up 300 kilometers (190 miles) to destroy a satellite orbiting the Earth.

The move -- with political overtones just weeks ahead of a national election -- sends a stark message to India’s nuclear-armed rivals, China and Pakistan, and changes Asia’s strategic calculus by proving India has the ability to knock out enemy satellites.

The development suggests India, which has long struggled with a lethargic military-procurement process and outdated defense technology, is getting closer to sitting alongside China, Russia and the U.S. as countries with the ability to disrupt enemy communications networks.

The move comes weeks after India sparred with arch-foe Pakistan in the skies over Kashmir, a disputed border region where China also has territorial claims.

“Essentially, India is saying that we are a strong and capable military power -- it’s not specific to any one country, but it is a message to all of India’s adversaries,” said Ajey Lele, a retired Indian Air Force group captain who’s now a senior fellow at the Ministry of Defence-funded Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.


 “If somebody wants to do something to our satellites, we have the capability to do this to your satellites.”