Part 1- History of India’s Nuclear Programme
Usually, one would start with sensationalism to attract attention of the audience. This is not my intention.
I am genuinely proposing a thought, that all responsible nations should be in possession of Nuclear weapon to ensure world peace.
I am genuinely proposing a thought, that all responsible nations should be in possession of Nuclear weapon to ensure world peace.
The idea was proposed by my friend Mr. Ramesh when we were discussing fallouts of Iran’s new Nuclear Live TV event as it turned out. Before we discuss the idea let us know the history of Nuclear Programme in India
1940: If you go back to Jawaharlal Nehru's writings in the 1940s, he recognised that it may be used (as a weapon) and then India also must have it.
1954-55: It comes out very clearly that at one point in time Homi Bhabha (the father of India's nuclear programme) after presiding over the Geneva conference on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, came back with great enthusiasm and proposed to Nehru that India should amend the Constitution and say that it would never go nuclear. Nehru wrote back to Bhabha that he should look after physics and leave the international relations to Nehru.
1962- 64 : Once the Chinese conducted the test, Bhabha was determined that India should go for it. Then Shastri appealed to the UK for a nuclear umbrella against the Chinese threat. In the early 1960s there was a discussion in the US whether India should be helped to become a nuclear power to neutralise China.
1966: Dr. Homi Bhabha passed away in an accident.
In 1965 when the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty resolution was moved India was one of the sponsors. India propounded the balancing principle -- no more proliferation, but weapon powers should negotiate to give up their weapons. When the matter came up in Geneva in 1967 our delegate V C Trivedi found that something else was going on. They wanted to prevent everybody else from going nuclear, but did not want to have any limits on what they were doing. He made powerful arguments against this NPT and they are still quoted today.To some extent the P-5 found that India was a thorn in their flesh in Geneva
1972: In October 1972 during the convocation of IIT-Bombay, Mrs Gandhi called BARC officials and gave the go ahead for testing.
1974: The Smiling Buddha, formally designated as Pokhran-I, was the codename given to India's first nuclear test explosion that took place at the long-constructed Indian Army base, Pokhran Test Range at Pokhran, Rajasthan on 18 May 1974 at 8:05 a.m. It was also the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
1979: After a lot of sanctions on it, India suspended its Nuclear weapons programme for a while. In 1979 India realised that Pakistan was going for one. It is learnt that in 1979, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was then a cabinet minister, opposed India going Nuclear along with Morarji Desai
1983: After coming back to power, Mrs. Indira Gandhi again restarted the programme the shafts were sunk in Pokhran, but at the last moment the Americans found out through satellites and put pressure on India. Mrs Gandhi told scientists to stop it at the last minute. In fact it was those shafts of 1983 that were used for the tests in 1998
Post 1984: Rajiv Gandhi was never for Nuclear Weapons. Infact we were the fore runners for CTBT.
1988: Rajiv Gandhi came out with his disarmament plan and put it before the UN and then to his horror he discovered that no one took any notice of it. He came back a disillusioned man and on the day of the air force demo at Tilpat outside Delhi, he said 'Let us go ahead.'
In 1995 when NPT was extended unconditionally and indefinitely, PV Narsimharao wanted to conduct the test. However yet again US found out thorough Satellites.
1998: Through PV Narshima Rao could not conduct the test himself, he left a note for Vajpayee which said “I could not do it, you do it”. That’s exactly what Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee did within 3 months of coming to power. On 11 May 1998, Operation Shakti was carried out. Shakti (शक्ति in Sanskrit meaning 'Strength'). Three tests were carried out on 11th May and 2 on 13th May 1998.
The History of Indian Nuclear weapon Program clearly shows that most of the leaders and even technocrats were reluctant to go for the nuclear option. But they did. None of them had Hitler like ambitions to have a Nuclear weapons to conquer any other state. The reason is political more than anything else. Its a hard fact that Negotiations take place between equals. They do not take place between US and Afghanistan or US and Iraq. For any country to be regarded as a superpower, one needs to be a Nuclear Power. I have yet to find a Nuclear Power be attacked by a country openly. Its quiet an antithesis, I know and I will try to ellaborate further on this on part II of this 2 part blog of "NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR WORLD PEACE"
