Nuclear War – A Quandary filled Solution

This peice is written by Reena Mehta soon after she saw the documentry 'WAR AND PEACE' by the Legendry documentry maker Anand Patwardhan, very well written Reena questions with indignation to the proponents of the nukes (as also the movie does) and trigers our minds n hearts to think the darker side of the so called national pride - the nukes testing of Pokharan

I heaved a sigh, ignored a sob that was waiting to reveal itself and switched off the ‘idiot box’ which for a change was showing me something sensible. I had just finished watching Mr. Anand Patwardhan’s documentary movie – War & Peace (Jung aur Aman). A movie about the Pokhran Nuclear test – and its POWER (I intend a pun here). For me the sob was too late to come, as nukes and its stories are a history now. All we remember is that a test was conducted; nuclear missiles were launched at pokhran. The test was a success; we celebrated and said ‘India is a Nuclear Power’; “Hum kisi se kum nahin”.
“Ab sab humse darenge”. With this our perspective to nuclear power ended as Arundhati Roy rightly puts ‘The end of Imagination’.

We Indians have the habit of listening to half truth, half stories and with all these halves we boast our half knowledge to feel good. I question; have we ever tried to step beyond the obvious? Every aspect from our side is left half done, half said, half expressed. And when someone tries and succeeds in giving us the other half or rather the ‘Whole’ we use another lethal weapon ‘BAN’.

Mr. Anand Patwardhan braved to know the ‘whole’ of nukes and wanted to tell us – but for us it was a waste; as we knew enough. I am not challenging intellects, but saying that we know enough only about one side of the issue. The side which appeals us. So for the other side we impose a ban. Despite this Mr. Patwardhan fights; not for his documentary but for our right to know the truth or to be correct the ‘whole’. We hardly know about his struggle for our right; as we are too busy with ‘sensex’s nautanki’, ‘Ekta’s Kitchen Politics’, ‘Salman – Aishwarya break up’ and numerous other essentially unimportant issues.

He fights a court case for 4-5 years, what is he accused for? For showing nation and its politician in bad light. ‘Bad light’ – let me make a slight correction here not for showing in bad light but altogether ‘throwing light’ on the dark and unseen areas. Thus he has to pay the price for believing that India is a democratic nation and taking the liberties of a democracy. How dare he say the truth? But his belief wins, and so does he in the court case. Fortunately for both political parties BJP and congress he wins in 2006.

In 2006 BJP government is already out, after enjoying its regime, after ruling enough and after a filled stomach now it can do no harm.
And for congress – “Arey bhai! Yeh to agle chunav ka mudda ban sakta hai”

But unfortunately for us it’s an opportunity lost – an opportunity for knowing the ‘whole’ at the time much needed, for being ‘true patriots’, for ‘telling that we aren’t fools’, for ‘proving that we are still human’

Still as the famous defending line goes (in Hindi – a dilasa) – ‘It’s better late than never’ a handful of us dared to know the ‘whole’. The movie revealed a cold truth about ‘Nukes’; the movie revealed the true power of ‘Nuclear Weapons’.

We on this side of our country were all praises for our government. “Acha hua yeh bomb phoda, ab sabko pata chalega ki India kya hai”, “yeh bajpayee government ne Bharat ka naam roshan kiya”.

But on the other side of our nation, our rural India was not aware what happened to their village, there was a sudden blast, and a high decibel noise was heard. Post all this, strange stuff happened. Tumors increased in people around pokhran, cancer spread, and people died. The water reservoirs of their villages got destroyed. The heat underground went high; it was as if Sun was invited here to stay.

All they knew was that Pokhran will shoot to fame; and they will be able to strike kerosene and would be able to make money.

Children die early deaths, what an irony the walls of the village houses sport the slogans for Primary education, and here the kids who are suppose to go to schools are lying on their death beds. Some are drinking venom in form of water.

All this is either termed a lie or is justified that it’s for the security of the nation; George Fernandes said “No price is high for the security of our nation”, for him the nation is his home, his bank balance, so the price in the form of lives is nothing – Tehelka proved it.

This was one argument; as for Lt. Pramod Mahajan – “Amit Shah a student completing his studies abroad; all his colleagues were introducing themselves one said I am from France the others said Oh! Eiffel Tower, the next one said I am from Russia so the others said oh! Super Power. Then came Amit’s turn he said I am from India. The others said India where is India”. This agony of Amit made all here in India very humiliated, but after Pokhran India was known as the nuclear power. Amit now could raise his head and not feel ashamed of his own nation; his self respect was preserved.

The credit goes to Mr. Vajpayee; and Mr. Mahajan said that it was he who gave India it respect. After this emotionally savored speech slogans roared “Neta ho to kaisa ho, Atalji jaisa ho”. And then he finally concludes by saying the line for which the entire speech was made – “so to keep such a diligent politician we need your votes”.

RESPECT OF OUR NATION – strange nation is built with its people; so for ones respect others life; a very costly deal.

Some facts –
One nuclear bomb is equal to the cost of making drinking water available to 37,000 villages.
It is 4 times the cost of providing primary education to children of our nation.

Still for us this power is important. Reality check – With these weapons whom will we protect? As with these we are already putting our future our kids in danger.


It’s very easy for us to discuss and say that ‘nukes’ is necessary; as we reside at the greener pastures. If even 0.001% of nukes would have harmed us or anyone near to us our opinion would have changed.

It’s just some farm land villages; why for handful of them the entire 1 billions security and pride be put at risk.

Security!! How safe do we feel today? How safe do super powers fell today?
I would not answer these questions in detail as the answer is the fear we feel traveling in locals today.
What good did nukes do to US at the time of 9/11? They aren’t different issues as the bottom line is feeling secured and safe.

In fact we have made have made our living even more dangerous; by challenging a power that no nukes can defeat - the power of mother nature its given us enough calamities to make us realize we should not disturb its balance.

These are some of the obvious arguments that MAY BE will appeal my logical and highly reasoned readers.

As for the humanity arguments are concerned they don’t touch us a bit as we have repetitively failed being human. As for us some farms and some farmers and some children and some animals’ death don’t matter.

We are selective listeners and selective believers; what appeals is right rest does not exist.
We are slowly loosing our humanity. ‘Nukes’ is just one issue which proves we are moving towards inhumanity. So I chose to write on it. Our thoughts don’t cross the ‘I’ LOC. So all our opinions are formed just the ‘I’ perspective. And one such deadly perspective we have formed is -
Today for us to resolve any issue violence is the key; for a little road accident – some slaps, and some punches work and for a Kashmir issue WAR.

We think being violent is being brave; talking about peace is being cowards.

I question; aren’t we so used to violence that now we fear talking and living in peace??

Writing this I don’t want you to become some parties, someone’s ideologies followers; all I want to do is question and want you to think and ask yourself….

Just quoting Arundhati Roy here…

“If only, if only nuclear war was just another kind of war. If only it was about the usual things -- nations and territories, gods and histories. If only those of us who dread it are worthless moral cowards who are not prepared to die in defense of our beliefs. If only nuclear war was the kind of war in which countries battle countries, and men battle men.
But it isn't. If there is a nuclear war, our foes will not be China or America or even each other. Our foe will be the earth herself. Our cities and forests, our fields and villages will burn for days. Rivers will turn to poison. The air will become fire. The wind will spread the flames. When everything there is to burn has burned and the fires die, smoke will rise and shut out the sun. The earth will be enveloped in darkness. There will be no day -- only interminable night. What shall we do then, those of us who are still alive? Burned and blind and bald and ill, carrying the cancerous carcasses of our children in our arms, where shall we go? What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we breathe?”
I would appreciate your comments on this piece of writing.

I would further love if your comments are given from two aspects:

One from the aspect of how I am as a writer and
Second from the aspect of your views on this issue and the articles content.

You could also visit this site to know more about Mr. Anand Patwardhan.

http://www.patwardhan.com/