NEW DELHI: The nuclear tests carried out 25 ago were important not only from the security perspective but also from the view of India’s confidence, according to experts. There are also transformative changes that were brought to the national security structures, they said.
Lt Gen Raj Shukla (Retd) said the way things have changed in the military structure are transformative and India will have to manage relations with China. Experts were speaking at a seminar on 25 years of India’s Pokhran II, the Nuclear tests carried out by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in May 1998. It is also called Operation Shakti. Pokhran-II, the series of five nuclear bomb test explosions, were conducted at the Indian Army’s Pokhran test range in Rajasthan from May 11 to 13 in 1998.
“A new strategic intent, a renewed power and purpose can be seen today. Establishment of the Chief of Defence Staff and Department of the Military Affairs are transformative,” said Lt Gen Shukla, who is a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
China was highlighted as the experts believed it is incumbent upon India to manage relations with China which they feel can turn violent. BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda, said, “Indians have moved from diffidence to confidence with our population elevating to an aspirational mindset.” China is a challenge and India must create more capabilities, he said.
Elaborating on the Chinese threat, Professor Srikant Kondapalli, an eminent expert on China said, the Chinese response has been that India “cap, rollback and eliminate” its nuclear capabilities. China played a role in Pakistan’s nuclear tests as “within few days, soon after Pokhran 2, we had info that Chinese had been training and supplying material to Pakistan”, he said.
Professor Amitabh Matto, Ambassador TCA Raghavan, Dr Manpreet Sethi also spoke Experts also mulled over India’s ‘No First Use policy. But in case of imminent nuclear and chemical attack India can withdraw its no first use policy.
“Our nuclear arsenals are with us and we can look China into its eyes, said one expert.”