Pokhran: Twenty-six years ago, India under NDA Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee conducted the Shakti series of nuclear tests at Pokhran on May 5 and May 11, a pivotal moment for India’s nuclear capability in the field of national security and clean energy.
After India declared itself as a nuclear weapon state by exploding a range of devices—from thermonuclear to tactical—the country has gone miles ahead in the interregnum with a complete, functioning, and highly capable nuclear triad and robust second-strike capability due to nuclear-powered ballistic missile-firing submarines. Today, India has a 5000 km range land-based Agni ballistic missile and a 3000 km range K-4 submarine-based ballistic missile, which can cover India from threats posed by China, Pakistan, and beyond.
While nuclear deterrence has helped India stand up to military and diplomatic coercion of global powers, the most important part of Vajpayee’s decision to test was that India for the first time named China as the key reason for Bharat going nuclear.
In his letter to then US President Bill Clinton on May 13, 1998, Vajpayee stated : “ We have an overt nuclear weapon state on our borders, a state which committed armed aggression against India in 1962…..to add to the distrust that country has materially helped another neighbor of ours to become a covert nuclear weapon state.” China’s threat to India was out of closet that day as before that day the Indian government and the media did not even mention China by name. The Communist state was India’s Voldemort as Buddha smiled on that day.
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