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At around 3.45pm on
May 11, 1998, three massive explosions erupted 200m beneath the sands of Thar
Desert, 20km northwest of Pokaran. Villagers
in the area felt the ground sway under their feet as a cloud of mysterious brown
dust blew through their settlements, only a stone's throw north of the main
Bikaner-Jaisalmer highway.
The bombs were small by modern standards - 20 kiloton, Hiroshima-sized - but
their political shockwaves resounded from western Rajasthan to Islamabad,
Beijing and Washington. By May 13, after two more detonations, India's
transition from so-called "threshold state" to fully fledged atomic power was
complete. As one British expert commented, Delhi now had the capacity to "put a
sizeable crater in the centre of Lahore".
The nuclear tests at the Pokaran Range were hailed by India's vehemently
anti-Pak press as "A Moment of Pride" and "The Road to Resurgence". Celebratory
fireworks lit the skies of the capital, and some fanatical BJP workers announced
they were beginning a pilgrimage to the test site to collect dust in ceremonial
urns, which would be blessed in a nearby temple and distributed throughout
Rajasthan.
The widespread euphoria, however, temporarily faltered when the scale of the
international outcry became apparent. Caught completely unawares by the
explosions (the CIA officials charged with monitoring India's nuclear program
were reportedly asleep when the satellite pictures came in), the US immediately
announced that it was suspending all aid to India, and recommended a freeze in
IMF and World Bank loans. Sanctions were opposed by Japan, the UK and other EU
countries, but the American threats alone were enough to sober up the Delhi
government, which owes $40 billion to the US, and had been promised a further $3
billion in aid that year.
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Despite government
assurances that the timing of the N-tests was purely a matter of foreign policy,
the Pokaran explosions were widely interpreted as a response to the internal
wrangling that had paralyzed prime minister Vajpayee's beleaguered BJP coalition
since it came to power the previous March.
Encouraged by his shadowy backers, the RSS (a grass-roots Hindu extremist
organization), Vajpayee hoped the nuclear card would restore confidence in his
rule and bring the regional parties on side. But the barely disguised triumphal
that followed the Pokaran tests evaporated two weeks later when Pakistan
detonated its own thermo-nuclear devices.
India was suddenly locked into a spiraling nuclear arms race in one of the most
geopolitically sensitive parts of the world. The rupee took a severe tumble,
plummeting to an all-time low against the dollar, as did tourist bookings.
Yet within India, few dissenting voices were heard. Among the only high-profile
critics of the government was Booker-prize winner Arundhati Roy, who, comparing
India's pride at the tests with its track record on tackling poverty, wrote in
Frontline and Outlook : "For India to demand the status of a superpower is as
ridiculous as demanding to play in the World Cup finals simply because we have a
ball. Never mind that we haven't qualified, or that we don't play much soccer
and haven't got a team." Lesser known opponents of the N-tests are to be found
in the villages surrounding the site of the explosions, where hundreds of poor
farmers and their families have fallen ill since May. Official doctors visiting
the scene claim the sudden outbreak of sickness was caused by "the high summer
temperatures". Pokaran
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