Domestic Politics and National Security

The technological sophistication manifested at Pokhran is a product of a long process of prioritisation of national security since the Sino-Indian war of 1962, and all mainstream political parties are culpable in ushering this political process which has enabled the BJP to exercise its present option. Conforming to the general pattern, the weak and unstable BJP political leadership has cited perceived threats to national security from external adversaries as a reason to go openly nuclear. Yet, the power such nuclear status spawns has in an environment of weakly institutionalised democracy an endemic propensity for excesses. Hence the need for greater concern to the norms of democratic governance in India after Pokhran than ever before.