OPERATION SMILING BUDDHA
In 1974, India conducted its landmark first nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan, as part of the ‘Smiling Buddha’ operation. Until it actually happened, secrecy surrounded the event, as many major world powers at the time attempted to restrict the proliferation of states with nuclear weapons.
Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi termed the event a “peaceful nuclear explosion”, perhaps to assuage the rest of the world and particularly the members of the United Nations Security Council’s permanent five (or P-5) members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia.
THE BACKGROUND
- Following the end of World War II in 1945, the US and the USSR continued engaging in proxy wars in other countries, for ideological and economic superiority, in what was dubbed the Cold War.
- With the US dropping two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of the war in August 1945, and the Soviet Union carrying out its own nuclear test in 1949, it was decided that certain regulations were required to prevent massive devastation at the hands of nuclear weapons. Post this, UK (1952) & France (1960) also got access to nuclear weapons.
- In 1964, China became the 5th country to get nuclear weapon.
NUCLEAR NON PROLIFERATION TREATY
- The NPT is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to foster the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of disarmament.
- The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States.
- Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970.
- A total of 191 States have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States.
THE NON SIGNATORIES:
South Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Israel have never joined the NPT. North Korea joined the NPT in 1985, but withdrew in 2003.
KEY FEATURES
- The Treaty is regarded as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and an essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.
- The Treaty establishes a safeguards system under the responsibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
- Safeguards are used to verify compliance with the Treaty through inspections conducted by the IAEA.
- The provisions of the Treaty envisage a review of the operation of the Treaty every five years.
- The treaty’s term was originally 25 years, but it was extended indefinitely at a review conference in 1995.
WHY DID INDIA CHOOSE TO CONDUCT NUCLEAR TEST?
- India objected to Nuclear Non Proliferation treaty on the grounds that it was discriminatory to countries except the P-5.
- A Hostile neighbourhood:
- India lost a war to China in 1962.
- China became a nuclear state in 1964.
- India fought (and won) wars with Pakistan in 1965 & 1971.
- Domestically, Indian scientists Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai had laid the groundwork earlier for nuclear energy to be tested in India.
- In 1954, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was founded, with Bhabha as director.
HOW DID POKHRAN 1 HAPPEN?
Unlike Nehru, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did not hold a negative view of nuclear tests. But given the treaties that the P-5 had in place, India decided to conduct its tests without any prior information being released to the world.
Despite certain apprehensions by her close aides & advisers, she decided to go ahead with the tests as she said it would be good for the nation.
A nuclear device was detonated, with a yield of 12-13 kiloton of TNT, on May 18, 1974. Pokhran, an army test range located in the desert of western Rajasthan, was chosen. A team of around 75 researchers and scientists were involved.
Its code name came from the test’s date being on the same day as Buddha Jayanti, the birth date of Gautam Buddha.
THE AFTERMATH OF THE TEST
- India demonstrated to the world that it could defend itself in an extreme situation and chose not to immediately weaponise the nuclear device it tested at Pokhran. This was to happen only after 1998’s Pokhran-II tests.
- In 1978, US President Jimmy Carter signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, following which the US ceased exporting nuclear assistance to India.
- The US also pushed for setting up a club of nuclear equipment and fissile material suppliers. The 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) would go on to implement agreed rules for exporting nuclear equipment, with a view to controlling the spread of nuclear weapons and where members would be admitted only by consensus.
- China criticised India’s testing heavily.
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