Time flows so fast…. it doesn’t seem as if it has already been 10 years that I made a blog post marking the 10 years of Pokhran II tests.
I include the matter that I had composed 10 years earlier..
It was 10 years ago that India entered the elite club of nations having Nuclear bomb.
India conducted the tests at Pokhran, Rajasthan in May 1998. The day we showed to the world, we arrived…. late… but finally there… we could see reactions from countries, the developed and white countries were hostile and quickly came with sanctions, the developing world was either indifferent or were non-critical about it.
It made every Indian and India lover proud.
Of course we had our opposition parties at that time which took the line of hostility. Commies and Kaangies.
But that was the day of India, Indian armed forces, Indian scientists (Dr. Chidambaram, Dr. Kalam and team, DRDO) and Indian nuclear science (Atomic Energy division), the day the Buddha smiled (the code word to indicate the success of the tests). The news of this tests reached the US was delivered by the CNN earlier than CIA…..
It just did not make the world sit up and take notice, but also deterred our enemies from thinking of acting crazy. (Of course their proxy war tactics have increased and Kargil followed)
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This is an old article…. but it gives info about the event…
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/may/12nuke.htm?zcc=rl
The day Buddha smiled again…
It was like any other day in the Thar desert — scorching heat and very little surface activity, a lot of vegetables being moved up and down and some men in military uniform seen entering what looked like bunkers.
These men, however, were not from the army but scientists and engineers from Atomic Energy Commission and the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The most conspicuous of those with flowing hair butting below an odd sized military hat was Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, the missile man, and now the President of India.
Among other scientists who could be spotted one resembled Dr R Chidambaram, AEC chief, while another looked like Dr Kakodkar, BARC chief.
Clearly the big event that was to follow was meant to be a closely guarded secret. Away from the world’s view, so that even American satellite imagery did not suspect what was happening down below, and certainly not below the surface.
Some men in military uniforms were also seen entering what looked like fresh bunkers. But military equipment being tested on the Pokhran range was usual.
Then, precisely at 3.45 pm, May 11, 1998, with the AEC scientists and DRDO engineers sweltering under unbearable heat, the command signal was given for the great event.
In a flash, the Indian nuclear tests were performed, the first three in the five-test series. On the surface, at the Pokhran test range, there were rumblings, as if of an earthquake, but no radioactive venting.
Two other tests were conducted in similar fashion on May 13 but these were comparatively of small impact.
Pokhran II was among the most successful in the long line-up of nuclear tests worldwide in terms of their performance being remarkably close to what was anticipated from theoretical computations; in terms of the data collected by Indian scientists and in successful completion of the experiments linked to the tests.
The western media continued to cast doubts about the claimed Indian explosive yields, whether they were simultaneous and even about the validity of the thermonuclear test
Tilted and distorted characterisation of the Indian tests was a part of the global political games that began in the wake of the tests.
However, India’s Atomic Energy Commission not only demolished this garbled and motivated analysis of the Indian tests by providing scientific information and analysis, but also by giving a perspective of the future.
Distinct, and characteristic of the Indian nuclear programme, is its innovative, indigenous road mastering an advanced technology and building a chain of nuclear projects despite the sanctions regime and a veritable cordon sanitarie imposed by the Big Powers, first in 1974, then again in 1998, and this amid the limitations of a developing nations economy.
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