Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 27th March 2019 in a televised address to the nation that India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile or A-SAT and has now established its place in an elite club of space powers. India is the fourth country to have tested an anti-satellite weapon after the US, Russia, and China.

However, a senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel tweeted an old report by Times of India to credit Manmohan Singh government for the success of the ASAT by claiming that the ASAT program was initiated by the UPA government. His tweet reads:

The UPA government had initiated the ASAT program which has reached fruition today

I congratulate our space scientists & the visionary leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh

UPA government had not given its nod for the ASAT programme

When we went through the article of Times of India which was published on 21st April 2012, we found that the then DRDO chief V K Saraswat stressed that the government had not given its nod for the ASAT program. 

He further said that India does not believe in weaponization of space. We are only talking about having the capability. There are no plans for offensive space capabilities.

Pic: Screenshot of the relevant section from TOI article

On 27th March, V.K Saraswat spoke to India Today's Rahul Kanwal and explained that even though they had all the necessary building blocks the project didn't get the go-ahead from the UPA govt in 2012. You can watch his full interview here: (relevant section: 3:10)

He clearly said that whatever we do on simulation only proves the concept theoretically and two - three technologies were still to be developed to demonstrate the actual capability of ASAT which couldn't ahead as they didn't get the clearance from the then UPA government.

In the same interview,  Dr. Saraswat said that it was the political will of the current prime minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval that the scientist could successfully complete the mission Shakti and demonstrate it ASAT capabilities.

Conclusion: The claim that the UPA government had initiated the ASAT programme is completely false.