Opinion November 12, 1985, 40 years ago: When will India go nuclear? Pak bomb and Rajiv Gandhi’s comment
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on November 12, 1985.
This is the front page of The Indian Express published on November 12, 1985. 
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PM on N-bomb
India would have made the bomb if it had felt the need, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi told newsmen in Bombay after dedicating the 100 MW nuclear research reactor Dhruva at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Gandhi said the country did not feel the need for a nuclear bomb, while replying to a question on the “Islamic bomb”. “When India feels the need to go nuclear, we shall inform the people,” Gandhi said.
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Border impasse
Hopes of an early breakthrough in the longstanding border dispute between India and China did not materialise. The sixth round of official-level talks, when substantive issues pertaining to the border were taken up sector by sector, concluded in New Delhi with both sides only reiterating and clarifying their positions in the eastern sector. A political-level discussion, on the basis of these clarifications, might be able to break further ground.
Raid in Sri Lanka
Militant Tamil separatists attacked a village in the northeast, killing six civilians as security forces braced for possible retaliatory raids by militants after an armed forces sweep in the region killed 33 of their number, security sources said. The sources said this was their second attack on a village in the region in four days which caused civilian casualties.
N-tech transfer
The country had made tremendous progress in nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and this was now poised for transfer to industry, according to Raja Ramanna, chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. He was addressing newsmen prior to meeting PM Rajiv Gandhi, dedicating the Dhruva nuclear reactor. Dhruva would not be subjected to international inspection as it had indigenous technology, he said.
ICMR on killer gas
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found some evidence of cyanide poisoning in victims of the Bhopal gas disaster but that did not rule out exposure to methyl iso-cyanate (MIC), a top ICMR official said. “The ICMR has never stated that MIC was not involved,” he said. He was commenting on a report in the London Observer quoting Indian scientists as saying cyanide was responsible for the disaster.
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