Forgetting Pokhran - II?

It is impossible to think of a better beginning to this article than this excerpt from the India rising campaign, delivered by Amitabh Bachchan with all his incredible gravitas;

"For over half a century, our nation has sprung, stumbled, run, fallen, rolled over, got up and dusted herself; and cantered, sometimes lurched on. But now, in our sixtieth year as a free nation; the ride has brought us to the edge of time's great precipice. And one India, a tiny little voice at the back of the head, is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating. The other India is looking up at the sky and saying: It's time to fly".

Take a moment to think about India; for the world is thinking about us. Of all the lessons that we have learnt over the last decade, the greatest is that we need no longer apologize for being Indian. This is an incredible success story that began, both literally and figuratively, with a Big Bang in the deserts of Rajasthan on May 11, 1998.

Pokhran - II marks a major change in the life of India; a moment when the old nation was swept away and our history began anew. For an international community that had been used to dismissing India as the modest (and, more importantly, harmless) land of Gandhi, this was aggression from the most unlikely quarter. Threats and sanctions flew thick and fast as the world was misled into thinking they could browbeat India into surrender and disarmament. Reviled by all, India was pushed to the brink of the precipice; from that point onwards, it was either success or death. In the battle of wills that followed, India prevailed and this shall forever remain the last occasion in history that anyone supposed that India could be subdued by threats; or for that matter, shown any condescension. Pokhran was a new beginning marked by innovation, reason, enterprise and modern science. Some five decades ago, Pt. Nehru visualized India as an eternal third world nation and as long as the Gandhis ruled supreme, this remained a self fulfilling prophecy.

At midnight (IST) on August 15, 1947 (at which time, it was 2:30pm in New York), Nehru proclaimed “while the world sleeps, India shall awake to life and freedom”. In a rational world, this statement would have evoked nothing but laughter and ridicule. Instead, in the kangaroo universe of the Congress Party; there was clapping, there was applause and this “inspiring” line was recorded into history books so that succeeding generations could dwell upon it with pride and patriotism. Early last year, the Congress clapped again, this time when Rahul Gandhi ascribed all of India’s achievements, including the breakup of Pakistan, to the initiative of his family and rued the fact that the Gandhis had not been around to personally guide their party in the 90’s, leading to the lapse of guard that allowed the Babri Masjid to be demolished. Given this sycophancy, is it any surprise that the sacrifices of soldiers in Kargil and the nuclear tests at Pokhran have been ignored by the current government?

Despite the pace of economic growth, India faces several internal challenges. Terrorists pick and choose Indian cities at will and claim as many Indian lives as they want. Despite being the worst victim of terrorism in the democratic world, we do not have a single law that deals specifically with terrorism. As such, our people need to be reminded of our achievements as a nation in order to maintain our confidence. The tenth anniversary of the Pokhran tests was a perfect opportunity to do the same. We the people of India have a right to celebrate our national achievements without being restrained down by internal politics. By denying us this opportunity, the Congress Party has done our people, our scientists and our soldiers a grave injustice.

Ironically, the only people who seemed to officially remember the anniversary of India’s ascension to the nuclear club; were the terrorists. They made sure that on May 13, 2008, the capital of Rajasthan was stained red with blood. The Congress Party, which is always on its feet in Parliament each time December 6 comes around, never noticed when May 11 and 13 came and went. In fact, the Prime Minister delivered a speech to the DRDO on May 12, but to everyone’s horror, did not even mention the nuclear tests.

Further this week, Minister of State for Defence Pallam Raju cheekily told CNN-IBN that there was nothing to celebrate about Pokhran – II after all! The minister elaborated that the nuclear tests had only brought sanctions, widespread criticism and hindered every single one of India’s collaborative, international initiatives. To my knowledge, a more disgusting statement has not been recorded to this date. Perhaps, later this year, the minister will go so far as to say that we should not celebrate Independence Day either, because of the riots that came in the wake of Partition. Or maybe, the minister for defence would also like to surrender the Siachen Glacier as well as the Kashmir Valley; because manning the cold northern frontier causes physical hardship to soldiers and is a drain on the nation’s finances! Apparently, national security and national pride are not significant rewards at all. With a government like this, who needs a “foreign hand”?