How Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions

[SR 71 Blackbird]

'Morarji Desai did not like that we had conducted a nuclear explosion'

The interview with strategic guru K Subrahmanyam continues:

Then they started designing the test. Preliminary work had already gone on, but Sarabhai had suspended it. But the Purnima reactor had give them some ideas about the behaviour of neutrons and plutonium etc.

Between 1972 and 1974 they worked on it. Ramanna has recorded that even in 1974 people like P N Dhar and Haksar got cold feet and it was Mrs Gandhi who told them to go ahead.

Why were they hesitant? Was it because of possible sanctions from the US etc?

Yes. At that time the US had become friendly to China and treated us as an ally of the Soviet Union so they came down on us very severely.

We already had a treaty with the Soviet Union!

Yes, and also they could not forgive us for creating Bangladesh, a new country on the map which nobody had done after 1945!

The sanctions started. We did not know that Pakistan had started its programme and was collecting money among the Islamic States.

When the Janata Party government came in (in 1977), Morarji Desai did not like that we had conducted a nuclear explosion and did not like Ramanna (since he had led the test).

He (Desai) even denied that there was any nuclear test. He continued to hold that tonnes of explosives were buried and exploded!

Is it because he thought Mrs Gandhi did it merely to overawe the domestic Opposition and not for any strategic reasons?

Yes. At that time the US was trying to persuade us to adopt full-scope safeguards -- that is everything should come under safeguards.

V Shankar, who was Morarji Desai's secretary, was in favour of it. So he told the Americans that we will examine it. The Americans were confident that India would accept it. Sethna was opposed to full-scope safeguards.

Image: Indira Gandhi at the site of the Pokhran blast in May 1974, with K C Pant, left, and Homi Sethna

How Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions - Rediff.com News

Obviously Morarji won't like it as he wanted to satisfy his bosses.
Morarji Desai CIA Agent. BAL PATIL

 

[PoKeMon]

India did a great favor for Pakistan by testing in 1998.Pakistan would never have been able to handle diplomatic pressure and probably would have never conducted test if it was not for India Test.After Indian test it was just a reaction

Favor for Pakistan!!!!!!!!!
I think opposite.

 

[SR 71 Blackbird]

What's MMS's view on nuclear ambitions?

 

[Nair saab]

What's MMS's view on nuclear ambitions?

As usual Keep quite & act Innocent Policy

 

[peaceful]

I read a long long article today about China's H-bomb project. It is just amazing that our men did it in 1960s with all pressures from both US and USSR.
It is never about the leaders, it is about the men and women who actually builds the nuclear weapons.

India can't build a H-Bomb because you don't have honest hard working scientists/engineers, you just have a groups big mouths keep talking.

 

[Nair saab]

you just have a groups big mouths keep talking.

I accept the Big mouth part...yes we have few of them like U...& but for the rest of the thing---->Am not a Fool enough to respond the Troll of a Brainless...

 

[SR 71 Blackbird]

I read a long long article today about China's H-bomb project. It is just amazing that our men did it in 1960s with all pressures from both US and USSR.
It is never about the leaders, it is about the men and women who actually builds the nuclear weapons.

India can't build a H-Bomb because you don't have honest hard working scientists/engineers, you just have a groups big mouths keep talking.

Forgot about the Soviet Help.Please thank them.
You can confirm this in the net.
Also who are you to comment on India's H-Bomb Mr.Armchair General.Are the Head of SIPRI?

 

[gubbi]

India did a great favor for Pakistan by testing in 1998.Pakistan would never have been able to handle diplomatic pressure and probably would have never conducted test if it was not for India Test.After Indian test it was just a reaction

If you had read the above articles, it is mentioned clearly that China helped Pakistan with its first test in 1990.

"Pakistan actually had a tested nuclear weapon by 1990, and not in 1998. That test was done in Lop Nor?
Yes, in Lop Nor."

 

[Swati Shukla]

Vajpayeji, Roaji & Shastriji where the best PM India had ever had...what ever good, India has now Is due to hard work of these three leaders... But Vajpayeji had BALLS which the other both lacked...Morarji desai was the most Idiotic PM we had ever had...

Agree.... vajpaye was the best. afper that rao and shastri ji.

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Deleted..........

 

[jha]

Mr.Shastri did not even repay his car loan-True Fact.
Mr.Vajapayee was responsible for the Golden Quadrilateral(love this!!!)

Discrediting Lal Bahadur Shastri..?

That man paid for the fuel spent on the drive which his son once took in the official PM's Car around Delhi..He did not let his wife install an AC in his home which PMO was paying for..

I am not trying to take away any credit from Vajpayee jee but No one can come close to Shatri jee when honesty is the criteria..

 

[jha]

As much as Balls are concerned, Nehru had left India which was defeated by China...Shatri jee led the country to resist Pakistan in its misadventure even though our adversary was better equipped...

 

[desimorty]

Just a side note.
Pakistan did not need to test the bomb. They had it. They had a working one, and it doesn't matter in what condition!
As it is known, it is largely a Chinese design, but in this article it claims that the Chinese even tested Pakistans bomb!
Why did India do it?
because 1974 to 1998, warhead designs for BM needed to tested. Pakistan already had a gurentee that they had the real thing.
So why did Pakistan do it?
Because they had less to loose then India by conducting their own. It was a political statement to the world. Basically saying, hey, we tested the bomb world, but don't blame us, blame India! they started it.
From what we already know, the bomb was China centric.
How do we know?
Well the Agni II was designed before the Agni I, and the former is the one that targets Pakistan!
Today while the US and China are no longer allies, India list of threats comes from Pakistan, US, and China.
Thats the list.
China has armed Pakistan, they don't intend to fight a war with India, rather they would have Pakistan fight it for them.
The US OTOH can use Pakistan, and can deploy carriers, like the did in 1971.
I believe that the Indians, plan is to be able to detter the Americans, with nuclear submarines armed with ICBMs, the same goal that China has.

A note to Pakistani's,
Your nation has been a puppet since 1962. You alligned yourself with China, a communist nation, which is not god fearing. A complete opposite to Pakistan.
And then the Americans.
Which to blame the Indians of being allies with.

India is not a friend of the US despite what politics say right now. What you hear is different from the ground reality.
The army is very much still anti American, more so than the Pakistani army!

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

Discrediting Lal Bahadur Shastri..?

That man paid for the fuel spent on the drive which his son once took in the official PM's Car around Delhi..He did not let his wife install an AC in his home which PMO was paying for..

I am not trying to take away any credit from Vajpayee jee but No one can come close to Shatri jee when honesty is the criteria..

You misunderstood my intentions,sir.The point that I wanted to make was that the Congress refused to support a patriotic and hardworking congressman and above all an Indian prime minister with money,whereas Mr.Nehru used to get fresh ironed shirts(or kurtas or whatever) from France every single day whereas true people's leaders like Mr.Shastri or Mr.S.V.Patel[who BTW wore a wrist watch which was not working and a Jubba full of stitches covering the tears]were sidelined,used and lastly forgotten!Almost everyone in India knows that Oct-2 is the D.O.B of the Mahaatma,but how many of us Know that on the same date,one of India's favorite leaders(Mr.Shastri)was born?!
Sorry for the lack of specificity in my earlier post..

 

[EjazR]

Lets see, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were instrumental in starting and later restarting the nuclear weapons program while Vajpayee opposed nuclear testing until push came to shove in 1998 and was basically forces to do so.

So who should get the credit for building up the nuke program? Vajpayee has many achivements to his name but national security espicially external security was not his strong point. Kargil War - the intelligence failure and its response, the hijacking and its response and later the terrorist bombings in J&K asembly and the parliament and its response are all examples of such.

However, his Kashmir reconciliation policy is admited even by sepratists Kashmiris as being the best. And infact, credit him for running the first credible elections since 1987 in Kashmir.