Hyderabad: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to nation over television about India’s Mission Shakti has raised a lot of debate by political leaders across the nation, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has come out in support of him.

He praised Modi for taking the initiative and also lauded his political will and courage to demonstrate to the whole world that he would do it.

In 2007, when China shot down an ageing weather satellite by launching a missile, India too had the capability to do so then. Although India had the anti-satellite missile capability more than a decade ago, there was no political will at the time to demonstrate it, said Nair.

Nair, who headed the Indian Space Research Organisation, Space Commission, and was Secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009, had joined the BJP in 2018.

“Now, Modiji has courageously taken the decision,” he said. The Prime Minister had made the announcement that India had yesterday shot down a satellite revolving at the low earth orbit, and thus joined the league of other developed nations, such as US, Russia and China.