Nuclear test demo of scientific capacity, political will: Ram Nath Kovind

NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday said the Pokhran nuclear tests of May 1998 had demonstrated India's capacity as a nuclear weapon state and repositioned the country on the global stage as a "mature and responsible technology power".

Addressing a gathering of scientists on the occasion of the National Technology Day, marking the anniversary of the 1998 nuclear tests, Kovind recalled how India's nuclear programme was built "brick by brick in a period of technology denial" and said the government of the day (under the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) took a bold decision to go ahead with the tests demonstrating India's "scientific capacity and political will".

He was referring to the sanctions imposed against India after the 1974 nuclear test that was conducted when Indira Gandhi was the PM. The sanctions, led by the US, had deprived India of critical nuclear and space technology.

The country had to face similar sanctions again when it carried out five underground nuclear tests in Pokhran in the Thar desert in Rajasthan on May 11 and 13, 1998.

"Those tests had a far-reaching impact on how the world came to see India and on our foreign policy, our strategic relations and eventually our international technological collaborations," he said.