Who's Afraid Of A New Nuclear Doctrine?

It has been 50 years since Pokhran I. With its capabilities increasing and global power equations changing, does India need to look at reviewing its nuclear doctrine?

- SANJIB Kr BARUAH

For India, May 18 has been a date of destiny. It was on May 18, 1498, that Vasco da Gama spotted the Kerala coast after a long, turbulent voyage. The Portuguese seafarer and his crew were the first Europeans to land in India, and their arrival ultimately paved the way for British rule. Exactly 526 years later, at 8:05am on May 18,1974, tremors shook the Indian Army’s Pokhran testing range in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district, which borders Pakistan. It was Buddha Purnima and India had tested a nuclear bomb. It was an underground test, making India the first country to test its first nuclear bomb below the ground. All other nuclear powers had first conducted overground tests before exploding bombs underground.

The Pokhran operation was code-named ‘Smiling Buddha’. That day, India announced its nuclear capability to the world, changing the course of its strategic and military history. After the test, Raja Ramanna, who was director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), told prime minister Indira Gandhi: “The Buddha has smiled”.

“Smiling Buddha marked India’s entry into the exclusive nuclear club,” former Indian Air Force chief R.K.S. Bhadauria told THE WEEK. “Since then, India’s nuclear strategy and capability, premised on the principles of credibility, no-first-use [policy] and minimum credible deterrence, has evolved significantly in a very calibrated manner.”

The 1974 test demonstrated that the Indian establishment had the capability to keep secrets. None of the ‘listening’ systems and surveillance and intelligence networks of the US or the Soviet Union had information on India’s preparations.