Twelve years ago, when China conducted its first anti-satellite (A-SAT) test, destroying a defunct satellite with a missile, it took 12 days for it to officially acknowledge the kill because of the hiding it got from the global community. Contrast that with the announcement PM Narendra Modi made on Wednesday, barely a couple of hours after India’s first A-SAT test, and the national exuberance over the DRDO’s feat. While China’s target was at an altitude of 863 km and the thousands of pieces of space junk so produced are still dangerously floating around, India’s was a live one on a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of around 300 km, whose debris is expected to fall to earth within weeks and disintegrate.

It was controlled aggression to demonstrate India’s ability to put enemy spy satellites out of business—since military sats operate on LEOs—and protect our space assets. The test was also on the right side of international treaties, as it was meant to develop a credible deterrence, given the current geopolitical situation. Unlike China’s 2007 test, ample Indian safeguards contained adverse global reactions. Pakistan though made some noises, as the kill added a strategic dimension to India’s ballistic missile defence shield system that is in the works.

Modi’s address was carefully crafted, taking nothing away from the scientific community. The US and Russia are the only other nations apart from China with A-SAT capability, putting India in that exclusive club, he sought to underline. Aware of the model code of conduct, he chose not to poke UPA 2 for refusing to green light the project, perhaps setting a political trap. When the grand old party walked right into it, mocked Modi and asked the ‘why now’ question, experts like former DRDO chief V K Saraswat put the Congress on the mat with insights on its lack of political will. While an EC panel will probe Modi’s address, the opposition ought to take the blame for letting the BJP score a brownie point on robust nationalism.