WOULD YOU TRUST A COUNTRY THAT NAMED ITS FIRST NUKE TEST 'HAPPY BUDDHA'?

[But while you brandish your weapons that always suggest violence or otherwise you may insist you did it to 'deter' or maintain the balance. Of course, Pakistan also did it on May 28, 1998 and has maintained the balance since ! And should the nuke arms fall into some undesired radical hands - there would be no any Buddha or Gandhi preaching nonviolence! 
The Buddhist communities were shocked to hear those tests carried out on the Buddha birth day! Whether they named the happy Buddha or smiling Buddha they should have done some other day! The Indian nuke program is said for peaceful purpose. Who cares? As concerns NPT, India may not sign for sometime.(Photo : First underground nuclear explosion at Pokhran in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974)]

By Russ Allen

One sure route for a state to be slapped with the label "rogue " is to develop nuclear weapons but shun the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Pakistan refused to sign while North Korea signed but withdrew. Israel dodged the NPT by refusing to acknowledge it even developed nuclear weapons. We'll leave Iran out of the equation because, despite constantly testing the International Atomic Energy Agency's limits, it doesn't seem to have completed the process.

But, like Israel, another state developed nuclear weapons before the NPT (though without refusing to acknowledging them), and refrained from signing the treaty. In fact, the case could be made that it's more of a rogue than any of the other states. Oddly, it's the state with a reputation for being the most spiritual in the world since it's the birthplace of both Hinduism and Buddhism -- India, of course. Yet it (or its rulers and policymakers at the time) were seemingly out of touch with said spiritualism to such an extent that in 1974 they code-named India's first nuclear test the Smiling Buddha. They even scheduled it for the day on which the Buddha's birth is celebrated in India. This was only the start.

The founder of the Military Space Transparency Project, Matthew Hoey writes:

In 1998 U.S. sanctions were placed upon the country in response to more nuclear tests. When the Bush Administration lifted the aforementioned sanctions against India in the wake of . . . September 11, 2001, and then progressively loosened export and commerce laws against India, it ignored [India's refusal to sign not only the NPT, but] the Proliferation Security Initiative . . . the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty . . . or the Missile Technology Control Regime.

[In 2008] the United States approached the Nuclear Suppliers Group . . . to grant a waiver to India to commence civilian nuclear trade. ... The implementation of this waiver makes India the only known country with nuclear weapons which is not a party to the Non Proliferation Treaty . . . but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world. [Emphasis added.]

It's bad enough that the United States and the Nuclear Suppliers Group made India their pet rogue. But, Hoey writes, "It is also highly unlikely that India will subscribe to the treaty to Prevent an Arms Race in Outer Space." Even worse, "Indian military officials have set a target date to deploy an ambitious anti-satellite system. ... for electronic or physical destruction of satellites . . . by 2015."

In conclusion, Hoey writes, "At a time when the international spotlight seems trained on North Korea and Iran, a growing tolerance for India's belligerence in building its nuclear and missile capabilities appears to shield it from similar scrutiny."

Why the tolerance? As Andrew Lichterman and M.V. Ramana write in Beyond Arms Control (2010, Critical Will), ". . . the nuclear deal is part of a broader set of [U.S.-Indian] agreements [which] US-based multinationals are . . . hoping to use . . . as a wedge to further open India to foreign investment and sales."

In the end, just more reasons that the Non-Aligned Nation movement (to which India supposedly belongs) can't take the nuclear powers seriously about disarmament.

The Himalayan Voice commented Jun 29, 2010 at 15:55:15 in World:

The first nuke test they carried out on May 18, 1974 (on the Buddha birthday?) and second time they carried out another test again on the Buddha birthday May 11, 1998. Why did they do so on the Buddha Birthday is simply to imply that the use would be ‘peaceful’? Both the Buddha and Gandhi preached nonviolence. 

But while you brandish your weapons that always suggest violence or otherwise you may insist you did it to 'deter' or maintain the balance. Of course, Pakistan also did it on May 28, 1998 and has maintained the balance since ! And should the nuke arms fall into some undesired radical hands - there would be no any Buddha or Gandhi preaching nonviolence! 

The Buddhist communities were shocked to hear those tests carried out on the Buddha birth day! Whether they named the happy Buddha or smiling Buddha they should have done some other day! The Indian nuke program is said for peaceful purpose. Who cares? As concerns NPT, India may not sign for sometime. 

And Buddha was not born in present India. He was born in present Nepal's Lumbini. The inscription on the Ashokan pillar in Lumbini reads ' hid budhe jateti Lumminigame'. There has been lots of debate since late 1920''s. The Orissa Kapileshowr Buddha birth place claim is fundamentally wrong. There is no archaeological evidence. The Kapileshowr inscription has been termed as spurious. This should suffice here.

First posted at the Faster Times.

Source: The Huffington Post
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