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NEW DELHI: On the 22nd anniversary of the Pokhran II nuclear tests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled on Monday the determined leadership of then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who helped the country out of the nuclear closet.
In his post, Modi said: “The tests in Pokhran in 1998 also showed the difference that strong political leadership can make.”
Recalling his Mann ki Baat radio broadcast two years ago on Pokhran II’s 20th anniversary, Modi said Vajpayee’s words had filled the country with pride and courage. Paying tribute to the Indian scientific community, the Prime Minister added that the way the tests were done in secret, undetected by US satellites. In the USA, it was to the credit of Indian scientists.
In marking his entry into the Nuclear Club, India, from May 11 to 13, 1998, he tested five nuclear devices at the Indian Army’s Pokhran testing ground in Rajasthan. National Technology Day is celebrated every year on May 11.
India had cited China’s threat to go nuclear, but key countries, primarily the United States, and its allies imposed punitive sanctions on India that were far more crippling than those imposed after the 1974 test.
The sanctions were later lifted in 2001. India and the USA. USA They then signed the civil nuclear cooperation agreement that nullified 34 years of nuclear outcast status for India and brought the country into the global nuclear trade network.
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