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On May 11, 1998, at around 4.45 pm on a sizzling day, the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee dramatically announced that India had carried out three nuclear tests. The news stunned the media and the world. Two days later, India carried out two more tests.
The US and other major countries imposed sanctions and questioned the scientific validity of the tests. There was intense pressure on the country on the economic and technological fronts.
The key men behind the triumph of ‘Operation Shakti’ were APJ Abdul Kalam, former President and then Chief of the DRDO; R Chidambaram, Chief of the Atomic Energy Commission; K Santhanam, mission Director; and Anil Kakodkar, Director of BARC.
The three top politicians in the NDA Government who decided to conduct the tests — Prime Minister AB Vajpayee; Defence Minister George Fernandes and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh — are all ailing today, but their bold decision back then put India on the nuclear map. The government of the day later declared May 11 as Technology Day.
UPA and the N-deal
Later, Manmohan Singh, leader of the UPA-1 government, staked his government and PM position in Parliament to ink the Indo-US nuclear deal with President George W Bush, in 2008.
But in the decade since then, India’s nuclear ambitions have not made much headway due to various reasons. The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, caused by a tsunami, badly jolted the global nuclear energy industry. Opposition to nuclear power grew shrill world-over. Problems with the advanced reactor design of French giant Areva also impacted India’s nuclear energy programme.
US companies such as GE and Westinghouse, which had promised big investments and clusters of nuclear plants, are yet to come in. Within the country, opposition, issues of land acquisition and finding new sites have led to delays.
The Russians, however, ensured the 1,000-MW unit at Kudankulam got operational.
The NDA government, led by Narendra Modi, has given verbal support. But with investments not forthcoming from global joint ventures and the slowdown of Nuclear Power Corporation activity, progress is hardly noticeable. At a parallel level, the PM has been pursuing solar energy.
Consequently, India’s nuclear power stands at just 6,780 MW against ambitious goals of 20,000 MW by 2020, and 50,000 MW by 2030. The plants under construction will add another 6,000 MW. The progress is at snail’s pace, at best.
Technology Day celebrations, which began with a bang, have slowly petered out into annual events.
A few awards and customary functions apart there is no great excitement in the air. And India continues to struggle in getting its due as a nuclear state.
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