A Strange Paradox. Review on Weapons of Peace - Raj Chengappa

“Love Thy Neighbour” is a strange paroxyism for India. Someone once jocularly said that half of India’s problems are because of Pakistan. He also added (cheekily) that the other half are on account of Pakistan too. Be that as it may but the fact remains that the very thought of indigenously developing a nuclear arsenal cropped up sometime in the 1960’s shortly after the war with China.

It was during Jawahar Lal Nehru’s Prime Ministership that the idea of having nuclear capabilities germinated and then took nearly 30 odd years, the indefatigable spirit and collective toil of thousands of scientists to culminate on May 12, 1998, the day when India firmly banged on the doors of the 5 super powers to proclaim its nuclear capabilities.

For a country that is known for being incorrigibly voluble, it stands out as the eighth wonder of the world that India surreptitiously cloaked her nuclear R&D program so effectively that even the US was caught off-guard. The level of nuclear preparedness was supposedly such a closely guarded secret that except for the Prime Minister, a few key diplomats and the scientists involved, not a soul knew a thing.

There were no official records documented. An outgoing PM was required by protocol to only orally brief the new PM. A major role here has been played by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) that was always under the direct control-command of the PM without any reporting to parliament. India’s nuclear knowledge was disclosed to others strictly on a “need-to-know” basis.

For the first time, here is a book that is based on a compilation of over 200 interviews that the author conducted with all living persons who were ever involved with India’s nuke arsenal. What is striking at once is that India still managed to successfully develop and test its capabilities in this area by starting from scratch and by doing everything on a trial and error basis. For other countries, India’s experience, as borne out by this book, will serve as a classic case study of how NOT to go about developing a nuclear bomb.

For one thing, not a soul from the 3 principal defense forces (army, navy and air force) were ever involved completely in its development though it was them who were going to be the end users. Typical of the Indian setup, the army was rudely arm twisted into placing an order for over 300 “Prithvi” missiles even before they were fully tested for their performance and delivery parameters under different conditions.

The book is extremely detailed in terms of charting out the various stages of the birth and development of the N-bomb. Yes, there are many places where the narration gets too technical and requires adequate knowledge of “Rocket Science” (pun intended) for the reader to digest but that’s unavoidable in a book like this.

The book is more of a historical account of the secret mission by successive PM’s and scientific advisors to build the bomb. Moreover, the defense given is that the fear of Pakistan was what prompted it but I feel it was more on account of China that it was developed. I also would have liked to know the authors own views on the subject but he restricts the scope of the book to merely “constructing” the bomb. Below are my own views…

Thus Spake Cheeky

After completing the book, just one thought kept running around in my head – does India really need to spend so much time and monetary resources in developing a WMD (though we maintain it is only for peaceful purposes) when we still have villages without basic educational and sanitation facilities?

I didn’t have to look too far to get an answer. India and more specifically, the Indian subcontinent has always been a hotbed of clashes, conflicts and wars galore since times immemorial and the enemy or cause lies both within and outside the country. It is a well-acknowledged fact that India has never cast its sights on another country but unfortunately, the kind of neighbours we have (with the gun-toting thugs who REALLY run the country) don’t afford us the luxury of sitting back and enjoying life without a care.

National security or the ideological predilections of successive PM’s who wanted to display their manliness? Each country points a finger at the other for being the reason as to why it developed the nuke and though it will never be conclusively proved who the perpetrator for this largesse was, the fact remains that we and our future generations have to live under this shadow of death for centuries to come.

Both countries today face an invidious choice of opting between mass production of these weapons or maintaining a “locus standi” to maintain status quo and build bridges of friendship and goodwill. History being what it is, option one looks a more likely possibility than the second one. But it is very clear that there has to be some kind of a consensus or understanding between all nuclear powers regarding future production, deployment and sale/transfer of technology.

Personally, my heart says that India’s real problem of a national security threat is not from its neighbour but is due to a combination of socio-economic factors like religious conflicts, ethnic strife, terrorism, instability among the social strata, etc. all pointing to a lack of vision and extremely poor form of governance on the part of those responsible for running the country.

What do you feel?

PS: Many thanks to Santy (Santoz) for lending me the book. It made for a wonderful read. Over to you Santy…awaiting your views on the book.