The Pokhran Explosions

Pokhran 1998 wasn’t just about a series of underground nuclear explosions to impress the world or to frighten and quieten our neighbours, but to work as a viable deterrent to outside powers as in the past 2500 years it has invariably been foreign invaders in the sub-continent not once but many times. What happened 20 years ago on 11 May 1998 at 15:45 hours was also about how we finally converted the idea of ‘Smiling Buddha’ of 1974 into five explosions to give the world enough reasons to make the CTBT just that bit more comprehensive!

This story isn’t about a nation attempting to do something belligerently but about understanding the need for something important to be done without letting anyone know… and there were satellites and spies all over. After all, it was Pokhran-II (or Operation Shakti-98) with one fusion bomb and four fission bombs that declared us a full-fledged nuclear state.

The adventure

There were then four satellites, euphemistically called ‘billion dollar spies’, hovering over the region and communicating every minute detail to the CIA. Communication channels were obviously tapped. On ground spies were active. And yet the site was prepared and the tests done. Yes, we did fool the CIA in many ways and Sambhav Ratnakar writes in an online essay that ‘US senator Richard Shelby articulated 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”.’

The events that led to the peaceful explosions are about our moment in history and how India walked on from being just another nation grappling with a multitude of seemingly insurmountable issues to one with the power to handle them all with insight, foresight, and in a humanitarian light. The true events that led to the Pokhran nuclear tests have been captured in Parmanu. Those who haven’t yet seen it can now watch the World TV premiere of Parmanu – the story of Pokhran on 15 August at 12 noon only on Zee Cinema.

Coming back to the adventure in real life that happened twenty years back, let me add here that the entire operation involved scientists of DRDO and BARC wearing army fatigues, and false names given to fool the spies. Thus our future President Abdul Kalam went by the name of Maj Gen Prithvi Raj and Rajgopala Chidambram was called Natraj. The three underground shafts were also given code names like ‘white house’, ‘whisky’, and ‘taj mahal’. All this intrigue was planned and executed for the sake of national security. A few countries would continue to view our nuclear programme as a threat to world peace but even APJ Abdul Kalam, then the DRDO chief has clearly mentioned that the nuclear weapons were for ‘national security’. The adventure that happened twenty years back has been captured rather well on celluloid and the movie does relay quite a bit of history without letting melodrama swing it around uncontrollably.

A bit about the history of these tests

It is not that the tests were conceived of and executed in record time in 1998. P V Narasimha had ordered nuclear tests in 1995. Our decision-makers were aware of the ‘short-term pain, long-term gain‘ tag that went with going ahead with these tests but the ‘issue was whether the government of the day was ready to take the short term pain. There were issues of handling domestic politics, political dynamics, and power structure. They (the political leadership) were all doing this calculation. Should we do the tests, should we not?. I think, Prime Minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee was very clear in his head. He did not have any doubts’, as mentioned in an article in Indian Express. This article is an interview with Anil Kakodar, nuclear scientist, was director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre when India conducted nuclear tests in Pokhran in May 1998.

The same article points out that both NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty) and CTBT (Comprehensive Test ban Treaty) had elements causing ‘a very deep discomfort with the discriminatory regime. Then in the 1990s, came the (negotiations for) CTBT. That brought in a tricky situation. If we signed on to CTBT, we would have been closing our nuclear option for ever. If we refused to sign, we would have to explicitly state why we do not want to sign. I do not remember the exact date now, but at that time a deadline had been set for signing the CTBT. It was sometime in 1998, after May’. It is important to know that in the nineties we were aware of Pakistan making overtures to get nuclear weapons and China was loving their dance. With a futuristic scenario of two nuclear-powered neighbours the only way out was to go nuclear, as I have mentioned right in the beginning. We were in no mood to welcome any more foreign invaders.

Parmanu… an adventure that is full of facts

History on celluloid

Bollywood isn’t known to capture history well as the people involved with the making of a movie get fascinated with entertainment diversions. There have been incidents even when Bollywoood converts novels into films and the controversies with R K Narayan as well as with Chetan Bhagat are fairly known to all. Parmanu, the movie, however, goes about capturing the intrigue and the urgency of the moment without watering everything down with diversions that do not add any value to the plot. This is one reason why I loved watching it… and will watch it again on 15 August at 12 noon on Zee Cinema.

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Parmanu, the movie will be telecast on Zee Cinema on 15 August at 12 noon

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Parmanu — a movie that does not dilute the adventure nor the intrigue

Parmanu. On Zee Cinema

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Arvind Passey
13 August 2018