India Shot Down a Satellite, Modi Says, Joining a Select Group of Nations

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NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India announced on Wednesday that India had shot down a low-orbit satellite with a missile in a test, hailing it as a major moment of national pride.

If confirmed, a successful missile test would put India in a small club of countries, including the United States, Russia and China, that have proved their ability to destroy targets in space. When China first successfully tested such a missile, in 2007, it brought global concern over the growing weaponization of space.

“India stands tall as a space power!” Mr. Modi tweeted after his announcement. He added that the entire effort was “indigenous.”

Mr. Modi announced the news in a rare televised address to the nation, and many Indians were immediately suspicious that his primary objective was more political than technological. The claim of a successful missile test has not been independently confirmed.

In a little more than two weeks, India will begin holding an enormous election — billed as the biggest in human history, with nearly 900 million registered voters — and Mr. Modi is up for re-election. Leaders in his political party have recently been heckled in public and attendance has been poor at rallies for some of his allied candidates.

Though Mr. Modi enjoyed a burst of popular support after India conducted airstrikes last month in Balakot, Pakistan, in retaliation for a deadly militant suicide bombing against Indian forces, that news has mostly subsided.

The announcement “shows a poll-eve desperation we hadn’t yet detected/suspected,” tweeted Shekhar Gupta, one of India’s best known political commentators. “It’s just a frantic new national security headline as Balakot has faded in a month.”



Source : Nytimes