24 years ago between 11th May, 1998 and 13th May, 1998 India script history when it conduct a series of underground nuclear tests with five bombs in Pokhran, Rajasthan.
At 3.45 pm on 11th May, 1998 the tests were initiate, under the assign code name Operation Shakti, with the detonation of one fusion and two fission bombs.
As after 24 years, this milestone is mark every year as National Technology Day to honour the achievements of scientists, researchers, engineers and all others involve in the field of science and technology.
History
The 1998 tests weren’t India’s first nuclear weapons trial as the first successful one took place in 1974 under the codename “Smiling Buddha” during Indira Gandhi’s rule in Rajasthan’s Pokhran.
But, this wasn’t enough to place India on the same page with other nuclear states.
For the next two decades, many prime ministers try to revive nuclear research most notably PV Narasimha Rao only to surrender to American surveillance satellites and the threat of sanctions.
In fact, in 1995 when P. V. Narasimha Rao order for a nuclear weapons test it had to be abort after America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spy satellites pick up signs of preparations for nuclear testing at Pokhran Test Range in Rajasthan.
President Bill Clinton and his administration exert enormous pressure on Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao to stop the preparations.
In 1996, Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to power and began working to achieving his dream of converting India into a nuclear state.
His plans had to be put in cold storage after his government fell in 13 days.
When he return to power in 1998, he gave the thumbs-up for the nuclear tests to the then Defence Research and Development Organisation chief A P J Abdul Kalam and then Atomic Energy Commission chairman R Chidambaram.
How Success Achived?
When the approval for the tests were given, India began meticulously planning the procedure, away from the prying eyes of America.
As per reports, the people involve in the tests were sworn to absolute secrecy and also they had one-and-a-half year to rehearse and plan every step.
As per a report in the Daily O, India’s access to state-of-the-art satellites help greatly in planning the Pokhran tests.
These satellites gave India the pivotal information on what could and couldn’t be seen.
Using this, they would work at the test site on at night so as to avoid being capture on camera.
In locations where holes were dug, sand was align towards the direction of the wind.
This prevent suspicion since unalign sand could have signal activity.
The people involve in the tests also use code names to counter CIA’s spying on communication lines.
Some of the code words use then were like White House, whiskey and even Taj Mahal.
It has also report that when scientists from DRDO and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre would visit Pokhran they would do it in disguise.
In fact, APJ Abdul Kalam’s name was switch to Major General Prithvi Raj and Rajagopala Chidambaram’s codename was “Natraj”.
When History made
On 11 May, 1998 the residents of Pokhran woke up to an ordinary day.
A huge clap of thunder and cheers turn the course of history.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee quickly call for a press conference from his Race Course Road residence in New Delhi and announce that India had conduct three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Said :
“Today, at 15:45 hours, India conduct three underground nuclear tests in the Pokhran range. These tests conduct today were with a fission device, a low-yield device and a thermonuclear device. The measure yields are in line with expected values. Measurements have also confirm that there was no release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. These were contain explosions like the experiment conduct in May 1974. I warmly congratulate the scientists and engineers who have carried out these successful tests,”.
World Reactions on Pokhran II
The tests left the Western world shock and surprise.
The Bill Clinton Administration condemn the tests and said it was “deeply disappoint” and subsequently slap sanctions against India.
In fact, the then US president Bill Clinton would go on to refer to South Asia as the “most dangerous place on Earth”.
US senator Richard Shelby had then sai that the CIA’s failure to identify that these tests were going to take place was “the biggest failure of our intelligence gathering agencies in the past ten years or more”.
Britain conveyed its “dismay” and Germany called it “a slap in the face” for the countries that ratified Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the then-United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan issued a statement expressing his “deep regret”.
Explaining the reason for the tests, Atal Bihari Vajpayee wrote in a letter to Bill Clinton :
“We have an overt nuclear weapon state on our borders, a state which commit arm aggression against India in 1962. Although our relations with that country have improve in the last decade or so, an atmosphere of distrust persists mainly due to the unresolved border problem.”
Its Significance for India
Despite protests by international as well as national entities, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood firm on his decision to carry out the Pokhran II tests.
In an address in Lok Sabha, Atal Bihari Vajpayee said,
“The Pokhran II nuclear tests were conduct neither for self-glorification, nor for any display of machismo. But this has been our policy, and I think it is also the policy of the nation, that there should be minimum deterrence, which should also be credible. This is why we took the decision to conduct tests.”
The Pokhran II tests also pave the way for India’s ‘No First Use’ policy, a vow that it would never carry out a nuclear first-strike and also would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear power states, and would strictly control the export of such materials and technologies.
Experts also believe that the Pokhran tests help change the world’s view of India.
