India, 1974: tested its first nuclear device at Pokhran in the Rajasthan desert on May 18. But long before that Indira verbally authorised director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Raja Ramanna, to ‘go ahead’ and prepare for a test on September 7, 1972. 20 months after that, Indira didn't consult any of her Cabinet ministers. The only people in the know apart from the scientists were her close advisers P N Haksar and D P Dhar. Both advised against it.
Indira would have been well aware of the global consequences of the test. Nuclear isolation would certainly follow, as indeed it did. Despite that she went ahead. Defence minister Jagjivan Ram was not told about the test till after the event and foreign minister Swaran Singh was given 48 hours notice. Her decision was to decisively change the global nuclear reality. That was for better or worse is a big question mark "?". But not the fact that it took guts to defy the world.
Monday, August 20, 2007
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