OPERATION SMILING BUDDHA AND NPT – DEFENCE & SECURITY
News: The
story of India’s first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974
What's in the news?
● Announcing
to the world that India had entered an elite group of nations whose members
possessed nuclear capabilities, India conducted its first nuclear tests on May
18, 1974, in Pokhran, Rajasthan, as part of the ‘Smiling Buddha’ operation.
Key takeaways:
● Then
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi termed the event a “peaceful nuclear explosion”, perhaps to assuage the rest of the
world and particularly the members of the United Nations Security Council’s
permanent five (or P-5) members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
China and Russia.
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty:
● To
maintain a kind of minimal peace, one such treaty was signed in 1968, called
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
● It
is a multilateral agreement that
tries to prevent the proliferation of
nuclear weapons by means of
a. Non-proliferation
b. Disarmament
c. Use
of nuclear energy peacefully
● It
was ratified in 1970 after being signed in 1968. The Committee on Disarmament
debated and discussed the contents of this treaty.
● It
creates nuclear “Haves” and “Have-Nots” throughout the globe.
Features:
● Nuclear-weapon States
parties under the NPT are defined as those that manufactured and exploded a
nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive devices before January 1, 1967,
effectively meaning the P-5 countries.
● Its
signatories agreed not to transfer either nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons
technology to any other state.
● The
non-nuclear states agreed that they
would not receive, develop or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons.
● All
of the signatories agreed to submit to the safeguards against proliferation
established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
● Parties
to the treaty also agreed to help end
the nuclear arms race and limit the spread of the technology.
Objection from India to NPT:
● India
objected to NPT on the grounds that it was discriminatory to countries except
the P-5.
● The
government of India refused to accede to the terms of the treaty because it
failed to address India’s misgivings.
Operation Smiling Buddha:
● Operation
Smiling Buddha was the assigned code name of India’s first successful nuclear bomb test on 18 May 1974.
● The
bomb was detonated on the army base Pokhran Test Range, in Rajasthan, by the
Indian Army under the supervision of several key Indian generals.