I read Raj Chengappa’s book sometime back where he was talking about a single teacher school’s principal who was born and brought up in the same small village in Rajasthan where he was teaching. One bright May morning, one officer from the Army drove to his school and requested the principal to teach his kids outdoors for that one day. He did not give any reason for that request. But, the school principal smiled and said, “Don’t worry… we know you are going to do another test. We are fully behind you!”
That school principal guessed and knew what the ‘so called’ most sophisticated intelligence network, that boasts of being “An Agency unmatched in its core capabilities” (as per their ‘Vision Statement’) had a tight slap in its face… left them puzzled and clueless… after all they had dedicated satellites monitoring this part of the earth on a continuous basis! This was one of the worst debacles of this agency, and I am not talking about some unknown or toothless organization, I am talking about the one and only CIA… the same CIA which has its own parallel rules which are unknown to many, which has a budget to match that of some of the third world countries, which has its own network of amongst the best satellite and computer systems and last, but not the least, it is the back bone of the only super power of this planet.
And that event that I am trying to point out happened on May 11, 1998, when The Buddha ‘Smiled’ again, but this time he showed some ‘Shakti’… yes, I am referring to the day when someone who was one of the best orators I feel I have seen (alas! Not any longer… age overpowered his abilities), Vajpayee, declared "India is now a nuclear weapons state" denoting the Shakti (India’s five explosions conducted, three on May 11 and the other two on May 13, were referred to as the Shakti series), and at the same time, he said, "We have the capacity for a big bomb now. Ours will never be weapons of aggression" denoting the peace that The Buddha lived and taught. The place, if you still didn’t get, Pokhran.
India is the only nuclear power (even if you include the covert nuclear nations like Israel, South Africa, Libya which would never go public as they are better off that way; and North Korea, the blackmailer # 1) to have a ‘no first use’ policy. Even the only super power never vowed not to use nuclear weapons on non-nuclear weapons countries and that too they never promised that they would not be the first country to trigger the nuclear button. Compare it with India! India declared a unilateral moratorium on testing, which declared a ‘no first use’ and ‘no use against non nuclear powers’ (though the only wars that we had till date were against Pakistan and China). In fact, not many people are aware of the fact that in 1998, India actually made equipment ready for six tests. At the end, India tested only five of them and the sixth was pulled out and taken back under the orders of the then Atomic Energy Commission chief R Chidambaram. It is interesting to know the response he gave when he was questioned by the media. He said that his team has got the desired results with just five blasts and he shot back, ‘Why waste it?’
That is India, the sixth and the most responsible nuclear power on the face of the earth, which way back on Buddha Poornima day (May 18) of 1974, gave the term ‘Peaceful Nuclear Explosion’ much fame and is referred to as the Smiling Buddha. Way back in 1974, the government of the day headed by Indira Gandhi (who, ironically was referred to as ‘Shakti’… (Goddess of) Power and also the name given to the 1998 series of explosions by none other than Vajpayee… though he detracted from that later) claimed that this nuclear power would be used to ‘move heavy earth’ apart from producing nuclear power (though the western media commented that those heavy earth for which India did test was located in Pakistan).
And do you know what was the nuclear doctrine of our dearest neighbor? Sample this: “If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no other choice.” This was ZA Bhutto in 1965, long before he became the head of that country. He was destined to be the iron man of Pakistani history, which he never was meant to be. He was shrewd enough. He knew that he did not have the resources, technology or, most importantly money to build a nuclear bomb. You know what he did? He painted Pakistan’s bomb ‘green’… literally. He termed it ‘The Islamic Bomb’. He actually never ever attempted to get separated from that concept… literally till his last breath. He took pride in giving his country’s nuclear ambitions a religious color and as a clash of civilizations. After his country lost the third misadventure with India and lost a part of its own part (which declared independence and came to be known as Bangladesh), and after he was forced to come to the picturesque Shimla for a peace deal, well, he didn’t have much choice, did he? After all, India recorded such a thumping victory that it ensured a place for itself a place in the human war record books by capturing 90,368 POWs (more than what any of the countries captured in either of the World Wars) and ensured that its neighbor’s misadventure resulted in dividing that country and getting independence for a third of original Pak territory. This was the price that Pakistan paid for crushing its own people, their ambitions, and their voice; for being the aggressor and for all the misadventures against India under the leadership of one Gen. Yahya Khan, Lt. Gen. Niazi and, of course, ZA Bhutto. Even after such a disgraceful dethroning and fall from public grace (of being the unquestionable leader to being tried for treason and being sentenced to death), he never quit his obsession of coloring his nuclear ambitions green. Sitting in his prison cell, in 1978, (after the Buddha smiled on India), he thundered, “We know that Israel and South Africa have full nuclear capability -- a Christian, Jewish and Hindu civilization have this capability ... the Islamic civilization is without it, but the situation (is) about to change.”
Though there is no solid proof to establish this, there are claims, not just in India (well, you might think that I am claiming this as I am an Indian), but is also a known fact in the Western nuclear dossiers and world nuclear chronicles that petro-dollars and generous Sheiks who got carried away with this ‘Islamic bomb’ concept were always there. There were so many shady money deals, smuggling of designs, maps, and most importantly nuclear material itself that went into their bomb that concluded in the long Pakistani chronology of nuclear ambitions on May 28, 2008 at Chagai Hills and the times beyond that till date. And, all those involved in that Pakistani nuclear program including the ‘Father of Islamic Bomb’ and the now much disgraced, house arrested and tainted A Q Khan were very intelligent people. They should be given their due credit for that. After all, Pakistan also has people with a good amount of intelligence. Well, all the ‘Made In China’ and the ‘Made in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea’ labels were taken off and were disposed off intelligently so that they were not found anywhere in the vicinity of the Chagai Hills nor near any of the missile ‘testing’ stations that preceded and followed those blasts which were declared to the world by the then PM of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif. Incidentally, Nawaz Sharif also fell to disgrace, just like ZA Bhutto, for another misadventure against India in Kargil. But that’s for another day.
There is no wonder what Pakistan’s declaration of barging into the nuclear six was: “Today, we have settled a score and have carried out five successful nuclear tests.” There is one unanswered question here: Pakistan claims that this was done in reaction to India’s tests conducted a fortnight earlier. Is it possible to do that at that short notice without preparing for these for ages? It takes at least a month’s time to even unpack and assemble a weapon. There is a theory, which many strategic affairs experts agree that had India not tested its weapons in 1998, Pakistan would never have come out of the closet to show its ugly face. For India it was nothing new. Lets face it; India never broke any law by testing. India has been a nuclear power from 1974. Not from 1998. It is understood that India did not test it before 1967, at the same time; India never signed NPT as a non-nuclear nation. Neither did it sign the CTBT. India never smuggled designs, equipment or fissile material nor did it have a great friend like PRC or DPRK. India did it on its own strength. India is a responsible state. Not a country which still is a haven for all militancy that this world fears. It is still not hiding any Arab Sheik who was disowned by his family and who is amongst the most sought after person in this world, in its porous mountain regions. India never is a part of the ‘Golden Crescent’ (collective name for Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan for their illicit opium cultivation and export).
One cannot compare these two countries, though Pakistan always would try to do that to earn the ‘poor me’ sympathy. Comparing Indira Gandhi with ZA Bhutto; comparing Nawaz Sharif with Vajpayee; comparing the likes of Abdul Kalam, Raja Ramanna and R Chidambaram to the likes of AQ Khan and Samar Mubarakmand or for that matter comparing India with Pakistan will be a grave mistake! It is like comparing an MK Gandhi or a Martin Luther King to someone like a Hitler or an Osama. One is the zenith of peace and responsibility whereas the other is the nadir of terrorism and irresponsible behavior.
And, please! No one in his/her senses would and should see Indo-Pak relations through the prism of clash of religions and civilizations. After all, India is home to the worlds second largest number of Muslims, next only to Indonesia and Indian Muslims are as much patriotic, if not more, as any other Indian. And India is the only nation on the face of this earth, which was never an aggressor, it never initiated a battle and the world history from the time it has been chronicled can vouch for this statement. And despite these facts, India still exists, and proudly, from times immemorial and it always shall… God willing!
