JAIPUR: When former President APJ Abdul Kalam was asked whether he would prefer going to Khetolai, he said, “Oh! Khetolai, I love Khetolai. If I am permitted to stay there, I would love to live at Khetolai”.
“I like the full moon night on sand dunes. I want to spend a few moments alone under the full moon at night. I love Pokhran and Khetolai, because it is where there is freedom to do something challenging,” Kalam had said.
Kalam played an important role in establishing India as a nuclear power and both the nuclear tests by India-in 1974 and 1998-were conducted in Pokhran.
May 11 marks 25 years of the nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1998. The specialty of Pokhran-II was its ultimate secrecy. The test was a success of strategy as western spy satellites failed to detect it.
It was an unforgettable moment for India when the country finally emerged as a nuclear power. Kalam was at the time serving as chief scientific adviser to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and was the brain behind the multiple nuclear tests in Pokhran which left the whole world shocked.
It was due to Kalam that American satellites failed to get even a hint of the preparations. Kalam used the hotline with PM Vajpayee to convey, ‘Buddha smiled again’, when the tests were successful.
Although preparations for the five nuclear explosions conducted in 1998 were going on for many years, it was on May 11, 1998, that Operation Shakti was given the go-ahead.
The operation took off from Santa Cruz airport in Mumbai at 3am on May 1, 1998, when boxes of apples were flown to Jaisalmer in Indian Air Force cargo carrier AN-32.
From Jaisalmer, the consignment was loaded in an army truck to Pokhran. The charge of this journey was with Major Natraj (R Chidambaram) and Captain Mamaji (Anil Kalodkar), but when the truck carrying apple cartons reached the prayer hall of deer park, where the testing control room was established at Khetolai village, the charge was transferred to Major Prithviraj (Kalam). The consignment was no ordinary one: the boxes did not contain apples but nuclear bombs made at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai.
For testing the bombs, Kalam worked in scorching heat for months and gave shape to this project in such secretiveness that no one knew that India was going to conduct nuclear tests. With the help of an alpha company of the army, five deep wells were dug and their names were quite unique. Of these five wells, each 200 metres deep, hydrogen bombs were tested in two wells which were named White House. A fission bomb was tested in a well named Taj Mahal and a skeleton bomb was tested in a well named Kumbhkaran. Remaining two wells NT1 and NT2, which were kept reserved for testing, were used the next day.
To keep the mission secret, Kalam stayed in Khetolai for two months under a false name along with two scientists. The team of nuclear scientists and engineers spent several nights sleeping in the open. For planning the tests secretly, a chess table was laid and the strategy planned on it. America’s intelligence agencies did not get a clue as to what was happening.
The operation was planned in such a way that the drilling of a deep tunnel was carried out only when the American spy satellites were not passing over the area.
Earlier, India wanted to test nuclear bombs in 1995, but America’s spy satellite spotted the preparations and India had to bow before international pressure. In 1996 when Vajpayee became the PM, a decision was taken to conduct the tests, but the challenge was how to dodge the American satellites. The responsibility was given to Dr APJ Kalam.
Unfortunately, the Vajpayee government of the time collapsed in just 13 days. In 1998, when Vajapyee became PM again, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Kalam and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Rajagopal Chidambaram were given the green light.
Missile man Kalam gave shape to this undercover mission which went on to establish India as a nuclear power. After the secret preparations, on May 11 & 13, 1998, five tests were carried out, leaving the whole world surprised.
“I like the full moon night on sand dunes. I want to spend a few moments alone under the full moon at night. I love Pokhran and Khetolai, because it is where there is freedom to do something challenging,” Kalam had said.
Kalam played an important role in establishing India as a nuclear power and both the nuclear tests by India-in 1974 and 1998-were conducted in Pokhran.
May 11 marks 25 years of the nuclear tests in Pokhran in 1998. The specialty of Pokhran-II was its ultimate secrecy. The test was a success of strategy as western spy satellites failed to detect it.
It was an unforgettable moment for India when the country finally emerged as a nuclear power. Kalam was at the time serving as chief scientific adviser to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and was the brain behind the multiple nuclear tests in Pokhran which left the whole world shocked.
It was due to Kalam that American satellites failed to get even a hint of the preparations. Kalam used the hotline with PM Vajpayee to convey, ‘Buddha smiled again’, when the tests were successful.
Although preparations for the five nuclear explosions conducted in 1998 were going on for many years, it was on May 11, 1998, that Operation Shakti was given the go-ahead.
The operation took off from Santa Cruz airport in Mumbai at 3am on May 1, 1998, when boxes of apples were flown to Jaisalmer in Indian Air Force cargo carrier AN-32.
From Jaisalmer, the consignment was loaded in an army truck to Pokhran. The charge of this journey was with Major Natraj (R Chidambaram) and Captain Mamaji (Anil Kalodkar), but when the truck carrying apple cartons reached the prayer hall of deer park, where the testing control room was established at Khetolai village, the charge was transferred to Major Prithviraj (Kalam). The consignment was no ordinary one: the boxes did not contain apples but nuclear bombs made at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai.
For testing the bombs, Kalam worked in scorching heat for months and gave shape to this project in such secretiveness that no one knew that India was going to conduct nuclear tests. With the help of an alpha company of the army, five deep wells were dug and their names were quite unique. Of these five wells, each 200 metres deep, hydrogen bombs were tested in two wells which were named White House. A fission bomb was tested in a well named Taj Mahal and a skeleton bomb was tested in a well named Kumbhkaran. Remaining two wells NT1 and NT2, which were kept reserved for testing, were used the next day.
To keep the mission secret, Kalam stayed in Khetolai for two months under a false name along with two scientists. The team of nuclear scientists and engineers spent several nights sleeping in the open. For planning the tests secretly, a chess table was laid and the strategy planned on it. America’s intelligence agencies did not get a clue as to what was happening.
The operation was planned in such a way that the drilling of a deep tunnel was carried out only when the American spy satellites were not passing over the area.
Earlier, India wanted to test nuclear bombs in 1995, but America’s spy satellite spotted the preparations and India had to bow before international pressure. In 1996 when Vajpayee became the PM, a decision was taken to conduct the tests, but the challenge was how to dodge the American satellites. The responsibility was given to Dr APJ Kalam.
Unfortunately, the Vajpayee government of the time collapsed in just 13 days. In 1998, when Vajapyee became PM again, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Kalam and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Rajagopal Chidambaram were given the green light.
Missile man Kalam gave shape to this undercover mission which went on to establish India as a nuclear power. After the secret preparations, on May 11 & 13, 1998, five tests were carried out, leaving the whole world surprised.
