PM's address on ASAT missile violates code of conduct: NCP

NCP general secretary D P Tripathi Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation on India's successful test of the Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile was a "violation" of the model code of conduct that came into force from March 10.

He said it would have been more appropriate had the scientists spoken about this mission.

"They (scientists) had the right to speak about the achievements. But for the prime minister to address the nation amid poll time, in my view, is violation of code of conduct," the NCP leader told reporters here.

When a journalist asked him about Modi's allegation that the UPA had postponed a decision on the anti-satellite mission, Tripathi said it did not behove the prime minister "to create controversy on the issue of national security".

"All the previous governments had a consensus on issues of foreign policy and national security. Modi ji is the first prime minister who is violating that common consensus," he alleged.

"It is wrong to link the achievements of the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) to an individual or a party, particularly amid the poll season. It is the achievement of the country and its scientists," Tripathi told reporters here.

Tripathi said he had been the chairman of a parliamentary committee that had once asked the DRDO about its various programmes. The DRDO, he added, had told the committee that it had the capability to shoot down satellite.

However, he did not specify the year when the panel had asked about the programme.

Talking about the Lok Sabha elections, Tripathi said he would campaign in Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies, from where UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi are contesting the polls respectively.

According to him, the NCP would support CPI candidate from Begusarai constituency in Bihar and former JNU Students' Union president, Kanhaiya Kumar, in the general election.

The NCP leader made a pitch for fielding a consensus candidate of the opposition parties against Modi in Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

He said that the NCP has asked its workers to support "wholeheartedly" those candidates who are fighting against the BJP and its allies and "are likely to win" in areas where the Sharad Pawar-led party has not fielded its candidates.

Meanwhile, NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik, who accompanied Tripathi during the briefing, hit out at Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Vinod Tawde after the latter trashed the opposition party's poll manifesto.

Malik said Tawde's remark showed that he cannot read papers and once again alleged that the BJP leader had not even passed Class XII exam.

"He (Tawde) is a minister with a bogus degree. It has been proved. His statement (on NCP manifesto) shows he cannot read papers.

"He should first show his Class XII passing certificate and only then should comment about our manifesto," Malik said.

Tawde had dismissed the charges regarding his degree in the past.