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Journalism of Courage
The majority of the Indian public and all the military people fully approve of the BJP government8217;s decision to carry out the recent series of nuclear tests. The short-term problems of sanctions by USA and its allies is far outweighed by the respect and prestige gained by the country after this impressive display of nuclear technology.
The degree of sophistication achieved by our nuclear scientists surprised even the experienced analysts. The successful tests of low-yield and thermo-nuclear devices indicate that we can weaponise them without further tests. It will be now logical for the government to weaponise and become the sixth nuclear power in the world. Economic and technical sanctions will not hamper our programme as it is indigenous and we have the industrial base to produce these weapons. As expected some analysts are worried of the Pakistani reaction. It is known that Pakistan has the basement or the laboratory version of the bomb which they can test with great fanfare. It is unlikely that they have the technology for low-yield tactical or thermo-nuclear devices. If the Nukes are inducted into the Indian armed forces, the higher defence organisation will have to be changed. An inter-Service Strategic Command will required for handling, maintenance and storage of Nukes. For the control of these weapons it will be necessary tohave a Defence Committee headed by the Prime Minister with two or three ministers as members. The government will have to appoint a Chief of Defence Staff CDS who will be the military advisor to the Defence Committee. The Strategic Command will be directly controlled by the Defence Committee through the CDS. The Defence Council and the Ministry of Defence have no role in this set up. An important role of the Strategic Command will be the selection of targets for the Nukes and allocation of targets to missile units or aircraft. All targets will be approved by the Defence Committee.
Strategic Command will exercise command and control over all nuclear delivery systems. Till the induction into the services of Agni, Prithvi missiles and strike fighters Su-30, Mig-27 and Jaguar will be available as delivery platforms.
If the Government decides to go in for nuclear weapons, Strategic Command should be set up immediately to work out foolproof operating procedures, secure communications and target folders. This will ensure that the Nukes are inducted smoothly and made operational in the shortest time. And lastly, Pakistan may be firmly reminded that the use of Nukes by them will certainly cause considerable damage to us but the retaliation will obliterate them.The author, former AOC-in-C of Western Command, was known as an unorthodox military strategist
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