In the 50th year of Independence, there are people who still ask whether Partition was a good thing. Fifty years hence people will be asking whether we were right in exercising the nuclear option at this time. Our decision is an extraordinary shift from all our reasoned and consensus-based positions on defence. The fundamentals of our thinking, beliefs and doctrine have been put on a new course. One must ask if it was a critical national need. Previous prime ministers have said in Parliament that our security scenario had not changed to warrant the tests. There seemed to have been no compulsions. Militarily nothing had changed. Previous governments did not go in for the tests despite having the capability and the demands from some quarters for tests. Their strategic perspective on national security did not indicate that India would gain by such action.