Latest news with #RajaRamanna
India.com
20-05-2025
- Politics
- India.com
Who was Pokhran's hero Raja Ramanna... he rejected Saddam Hussein's huge money offer of..., made India a nuclear power by...
Who was Pokhran's hero Raja Ramanna... he rejected Saddam Hussein's huge money offer of..., made India a nuclear power by... It was in 1978, when Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein invited an Indian scientist to visit his country as a personal guest. As per the schedule, this Indian scientist reached Iraq and was given a tour of the nuclear centre. Everything was going well when something happened which created a very strange situation for this Indian scientist . Actually, Saddam Hussein gave a shocking offer and asked him to head Iraq's nuclear programme. Saddam Hussein said, 'You have done a lot for your country. But, I want you to stay here now. You take over our country's nuclear programme. I am ready to give you whatever amount you want in return.' The Indian scientist was surprised to hear this offer and rejected with great respect. The scientist took a flight to India the next day and returned to his country. The name of this scientist was Dr. Raja Ramanna, who played the biggest role in making India a nuclear power. It was Ramanna who carried out India's first nuclear test Pokhran-I in the desert of Rajasthan. Born on January 28, 1925 in Tumkur, Karnataka, Raja Ramanna studied science at Madras Christian College. After this he went to London. Here he did his PhD in Physics from King's College. He returned to India in 1949. On returning to India, Homi Bhabha called him to join the Indian nuclear program. Raja Ramanna worked twice as the director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center. Ramanna was awarded Padma Vibhushan It was during Raja Ramanna's tenure that India conducted its first nuclear bomb test in 1974. For this work, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan. Later, he was also the Minister of State for Defence and a member of the Rajya Sabha. The incident that happened with Raja Ramanna in Iraq is also compared with Pakistan's scientist AQ Khan. On one hand, Ramanna had rejected Iraq's offer. On the other hand, AQ Khan had sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Why was he named Smiling Buddha? In 1972, when Indira Gandhi was visiting the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, she allowed the scientists to build and test a nuclear device. Ramanna was the director of BARC at that time. This device was called a 'peaceful nuclear explosion' and was named 'Smiling Buddha'. This is because the test was done on the day of Buddha Purnima.
Hans India
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Nuclear Dawn: 51 Years Since 'Smiling Buddha' Changed India's Global Standing
Fifty-one years ago, on May 18, 1974, India silently yet dramatically altered the global power balance when it successfully detonated its first nuclear device beneath the sun-scorched sands of Rajasthan's Pokhran. This historic achievement made India the first nation outside the five permanent UN Security Council members to demonstrate nuclear capability. Codenamed "Smiling Buddha," the operation firmly established India's technological prowess, strategic independence, and national determination on the international stage. The Pokhran-I test was executed under extraordinary secrecy during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's leadership. Just one day before the test, she authorized the final step with the simple directive to Dr. Ramanna: "Please go ahead. It will be good for the nation." This followed her initial approval of the project during a BARC visit in September 1972. A dedicated team of 75 scientists and engineers, under the guidance of Raja Ramanna, PK Iyengar, and Rajagopala Chidambaram, had worked meticulously on the project from 1967 to 1974. Their efforts culminated in success when scientist Pranab Rebatiranjan Dastidar pressed the firing button at 8:05 am on that fateful morning. The operation's codename drew inspiration from Gautama Buddha, with the test coincidentally occurring on Buddha Jayanti. Following the successful detonation, Raja Ramanna sent a cryptic message to the Prime Minister stating, "The Buddha has finally smiled." While India officially described the test as a "peaceful nuclear explosion," Raja Ramanna later clarified in a 1997 interview: "The Pokhran test was a bomb, I can tell you now... An explosion is an explosion, a gun is a gun, whether you shoot at someone or shoot at the ground." The international community responded swiftly by establishing the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a coalition of 48 nuclear supplier countries formed to regulate nuclear technology exports. India maintained nuclear restraint for 24 years before conducting five additional tests in May 1998 during Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. These tests, which included a thermonuclear device, firmly positioned India as the world's sixth declared nuclear power. The 1974 test's legacy remains profound—it demonstrated India's scientific capabilities, established its strategic autonomy, and forever altered the nation's position in global affairs, effects that continue to resonate fifty-one years later.
