Pokhran '98: A Flashback

It is now three years since Pokhran II. Was it The End of The Imagination or was the bomb the global currency of self-esteem, a Million Pound Note -- apparently of no use, but a minting of false coin in the hope of purchasing

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 11 May 2001 12:00 am

The Writers
StrangeGravefellows
Figures from Galileo to Einstein to Oppenheimer have always insisted that the scientist ismorally responsible for the uses he allows his work to be put to. Their Indiancounterparts are surely not above this.
Ruchir Joshi
Magazine | June 15, 1998

Guns'N' Butter
The intelligentsia warns against pop-nationalism and the prevailing ignorance aboutnuclear horrors
Sagarika Ghosh
Magazine | June 1, 1998

O,What A Lovely Death
What if a bomb is dropped on Delhi? Architect Gautam Bhatia reconstructs the city from theruins.
Magazine | June 22, 1998

TheEnd Of Imagination
My world has died. I write to mourn its passing." Booker Prize winner Arundhati Royon India's Nuclear Bomb
Arundhati Roy
Magazine | August 3, 1998

Countdown
"The pursuit of nuclear weapons in the subcontinent is the moral equivalentof civil war: the targets the rulers have in mind for these weapons are, in theend, none other than their own people."
Amitav Ghosh

Opinion
HowA 'Tired' PM Became a 'Bold' PM
Power comes not with nuclear capability but with robust economy
Vinod Mehta
Magazine | May 25, 1998

BlastingA Straitjacket
Between 1974 and 1996 Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.China emerged as a major nuclear power. The Pokhran tests were a logical, legitimateresponse to this.
J.N. Dixit
Magazine | June 1, 1998

TheRoad Not Taken
The road ahead for Pakistan is a forked one
Najam Sethi
Magazine | May 25, 1998

Crisis Is Opportunity
Finally, economics will decide whether N-India will be a banana republic or aglobal power
Sandipan Deb
Magazine | May 25, 1998

TheGeorge Effect And After
The skill and efficiency with which the tests were conducted were not matched bydiplomatic acumen. India witnessed a privatisation of policy-making and China bashing a laFernandes became the order of the day.
Magazine | June 1, 1998

Interviews
"No More Tests are Planned"
As domestic jubilation continued unabated and international criticism mountedagainst the Pokhran tests, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told Outlook that hisgovernment would not conduct any more nuclear tests. Declaring that India was a nuclearweapons power, the prime minister was insistent that economic sanctions would have ashort-term, limited impact.
Magazine | May 25, 1998

"There Is A Serious Possibility Of An IndianAttack"
Ruling out the likelihood of talks with India in the immediate future, Pakistanforeign minister Gohar Ayub Khan says Islamabad is prepared for any eventuality, includinga military strike by India on its nuclear installations
Magazine | June 1, 1998

"India Has Lost Its Image"
Noted Kerala-born economist Dr K.N. Raj, who taught at the Delhi School ofEconomics for 18 years, was handpicked by Jawah-arlal Nehru to help chart the nation'sdevelopment path. A product of the Madras Christian College and the London School ofEconomics, he authored the foreword to the First Five Year Plan.
Magazine | June 1, 1998

"All Indians Are In N-Firing Line"
Lt-General (retd) V.R. Raghavan, former director general (military operations)and currently a director in the Delhi Policy Group, is convinced that nuclear tests werenot warranted at this juncture
Magazine | June 15, 1998

"ParliamentHas Mandated Taking Back PoK"
Magazine | June 1, 1998

Analysis
Pokhran-II:What Led To The 53 Kiloton Bombshell?
Were the Pokhran tests conducted in the national interest or the party interest
Magazine | May 25, 1998

Omerta Code
Most of those responsible for Pokhran '98 are anonymous and didn't knowwhat they were up to
Magazine | May 25, 1998

Echoesof 1974
Pokhran could not save the Indira regime
Magazine | May 25, 1998

AGhauri Sight
Ghauri can strike you in 6-7 minutes, wipe out 90 lakh people in Delhi, another 89.36 lakhin Bombay
Magazine | May 25, 1998

WeDidn't Start The Fire
Behind the tit-for-tat tests, religious schisms, and fragile egos, lies the real danger:The End
Magazine | June 8, 1998

FreedomFrom Humbug
Consider the incongruity and arrogance of power explicit in the CTBT which cannot enterinto force unless India, its staunchest opponent, ratifies it. Having tested before thetreaty closed in, India has been right to declare no first use
Magazine | June 15, 1998

AmateurTriggermen
The rationale behind nuclear strategy is a mystery to lay Indians, which isunderstandable, but it is an area of darkness to most members of the strategic hierarchyon both sides of the border as well.
Magazine | June 15, 1998