PM MODI INTERVIEW: "Country's security not safe in hands of people without primary knowledge," said PM Modi over Opposition's reaction on Mission Shakti announcement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Wednesday with an "important message". The address started at 12:35 PM during which PM Modi announced that India shot down a Low-Orbit Satellite in the space on Wednesday. The mission was named "Mission Shakti" which was successfully operated in just 3 minutes.

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But soon after that,  the opposition responded to it swiftly by saying that the prime minister violated the election model code of conduct.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an exclusive interview to Republic Media Network, spoke about the issue that was raised by the opposition — that why did he make an announcement just three weeks prior to the Lok Sabha elections on radio and television.

He said: "In the Opposition, when juniors make mistakes...Mistakes do happen but the Congress party, which was in government for a long time and they've had esteemed leaders who've taken care of different functions of the government, they should've at least consulted their people and asked what is this about?  What is Modi talking about? I think, the basic knowledge that is needed, there seems to be a lack of it in their statements. The second thing, call it an adventure or an initiative, they don't happen suddenly.  You need to tell the global community that you want space at a particular time in space to ensure there's no space traffic or collision, you need to ask for an open space, you need to fix that space. It's a long process."

He further said: "When you get time as per the global community's convenience, you need to utilise your time in that period. For us, this was the time allotted. This is not a thing that you think about and then execute and then some problem arises. It doesn't happen that way. These things have to be done as soon as possible."

However, Samajwadi leader went on to politicise the stupendous feat by the country by downplaying the success of 'Mission Shakti'. While addressing the media, the SP chief said: "They have cheated through TV. These scientific, defence things happen often. China has done this before us."  The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee while saying that India's space mission has been world-class for many years said that the announcement by PM Modi was "yet another limitless drama and publicity mongering". She also said that the announcement is a gross violation of Model Code of Conduct.

Prime Minister Modi said: "The people of this country, if they collate the statements of the opposition and see it together, will decide that India will never be safe in the hands of such people who don't even have primary knowledge. People will be sure of this."

When asked whether he was confident about winning the elections by getting 272 seats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: "As far as rules of the election commission are concerned, say for example, there's a natural calamity somewhere, should the government not do anything saying that code of conduct is in place and I can't do anything? Such a thing cannot happen. On many occasions, it so happened, that despite election commission code of conduct being in place, budget session of many states are still underway. Budgets are coming in, speeches are being made. Everything is happening."

So, the question then arises that "why is the opposition reacting in an extreme way?," asked Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

To which, Prime minister Narendra Modi said: "In the past, elections happened during 15th August and 26th January. Code of conduct was in place. At every level, politicians who were in government, gave speeches. People seem to be unaware about it. When I was young, I heard this joke — Thieves came to a policeman's house, he was sleeping, his wife woke up. She saw thieves looting their place by picking up their things. The wife thought, everything will be stolen, so she started waking her husband up and said thieves are here. The husband said 'I am not on duty'. Do such things happen?," he said.

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