26.1.13

Pokhran secrets


According to A P J Abdul Kalam, the father of India’s missile programme who later went on to become the President, ex-PM P V Narasimha Rao told him to be ready for a nuclear test in 1996. “Kalam, be ready with the Department of Atomic Energy and your team for the N-test. I am going to Tirupati. You wait for my authorization to go ahead with the test. DRDO-DAE teams must be ready for action”.
But Rao’s plans were not meant to be as “the election result was different from what he anticipated”. Kalam said he received yet another call from the then PM asking him to meet him along with Prime Minister designate A B Vajpayee. This was “so that the smooth takeover of such a very important programme can take place,” he elaborated. However, the nuke test plans could not be carried out as the Vajpayee government lasted barely 13 days.
Noting that Rao’s act of ensuring continuity of the nuclear programme “reveals the maturity and professional excellence of a patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system,” Kalam revealed that the first task he was assigned after Vajpayee embarked on his second stint as the PM in 1998 was to conduct the nuclear test at the earliest.
The Pokhran tests were finally carried out in May, 1998.

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