With the Opposition accusing Prime Minister Modi of trying to get electoral mileage by announcing amid the poll process the successful testing of India's anti-satellite missile ability, the BJP on Wednesday cautioned political parties against playing "politics on the issue".
Terming DRDO scientists achievement as a "pride" of the nation, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav said "let us not play politics" on the issue.
Modi announced Wednesday that India demonstrated its anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite, and described it a "rare achievement" that puts the country in an exclusive club of space super powers.
"Let us not play any politics (on the achievement). The whole country takes pride in the achievement of our scientists," Madhav told reporters here.
Replying to a question on a reported Congress' claim that the country developed this capability way back in 2012, the BJP leader said, "If it was developed in 2012, I don't know why it was never tested or never told to the people."
"We have come to know about it through a successful testing today, so we give credit to our scientists for the great achievement," he added.
"The BJP congratulates the Defence Research Development Organisation scientists and the people of the country. It is a phenomenal achievement in the space power and has filled our hearts with pride. Congratulations to our Government and the Prime Minister," he said.
The BJP leader said the successful testing has placed India in the elite club of major countries in the space technology and "it is a big achievement for India because cyber area is going to be future of all conflicts and the challenges the country is going to face in future.
"Mastering this kind of technology is a great relief for the country and a big achievement," he said.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala earlier had said in tweet that "the building blocks for success" of anti-satellite programme "were laid during UPA-Cong Govt in 2012".