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Updated: Apr 25, 2020 17:30 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah hit back at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi after the Opposition leader took a pot shot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making announcement about Mission Shakti.

Retweeting Gandhi’s post, Shah wrote on Twitter, “Thus speaks the inheritor of the dynasty that thinks - All the nation’s a stage! For them: Sacrifices of soldiers – drama, Success of scientists – drama, Masquerading as leaders, all that ‘The Dynasty’ has done is to plunder, weaken and ruin the nation.”

Earlier, the Congress president had said, “Well done DRDO, extremely proud of your work. I would also like to wish the PM a very happy World Theatre Day.”

In his retort to Opposition’s criticism, Shah tweeted, “The Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Missile was successfully tested in space but it seems a few people on Earth have also got hurt. After spending a lifetime of humiliating our soldiers, Leaders of the Opposition have expanded their influence to ridiculing our scientists.”

The BJP-Opposition spar followed PM Modi’s televised address to the nation declaring successful test-firing of ballistic missile defence system by India after the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) shot down a satellite in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

With this, India entered the elite club of four nations having capability to hit a live target in space. Till now, only the US, Russia and China had shown the capability to hit a target in LEO.

The announcement of a successful scientific defence programme by PM Modi ahead of the Lok Sabha election drew criticism from Opposition parties, who linked it with the ruling BJP’s effort to gain electoral benefit out of it.

TMC president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the announcement by PM Modi amounted to violation of the poll code.

Yechury on Wednesday wrote a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora drawing his attention to the matter while Banerjee said her party would lodge a formal complaint with the Election Commission.

The Congress said the achievement by the scientists could become possible due to the futuristic vision by former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. The Opposition also pointed out to statements of former DRDO chief Dr VK Saraswat saying that India possessed the capability of developing an A-SAT during UPA regime itself.

Shah, however, turned the argument to target the Congress-led previous government. He said, “The truth is, our proficient scientists always had the talent and capability, all that was needed was the go ahead from the government. UPA did not have the courage to back its institutions and people, NDA under PM Modi has shown the conviction to do so.”

A-SAT or anti-satellite missile system refers to military capability to strike at a target in space. Most of these targets or satellites operate in LEO, which refers an altitude less than 2,000 km from the earth’s surface.