Gandhiji was once asked as to why he was muted in his criticism of the US for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. He replied candidly that the US might well have used the bomb against India in that case.

In retrospect, it seems clear that the Pokharan tests came not a day too soon. The signs were there for all to see. In 1991, the west changed its non-proliferation policy to a more aggressive `counter proliferation'. The Washington Post had reported in 1993 that a sum of $6 million was earmarked specifically for South Asia to `educate' the Indians on thisissue.

The recipients of the west's largesse have since consistently campaigned in the media under the garb of peace-movements to disarm and castrate India. The political elite then ruling the country had such a profusion of skeletons in its cupboard -- all known to foreign intelligence agencies -- -- that it was easy to subvert Indian preparedness even in vital areas like defence and national security. It was the country's good fortune that it happened to get itself a BJP government at a crucial moment in its history -- and a decision was taken to go nuclear, saving future generations from being `Kosovoed'.

The anti-nuclearisation of the western-fed elite argument rested on false economic premises. Soon after Pokharan II, a leading economic daily ran screaming headlines about the loss of western aid and impending economic disaster. The actual reality, as it turned out, is that at the loss of $1.5 billion in aid, India collected nearly $4.5 billion through RIBs (Resurgent India Bonds). It was, of course,too much to expect these worthies to own up their miscalculation. Since there was much doubt about how effective the sanctions would be, one can well surmise that all this may have been a part of the scare propaganda funded by external forces.

The propaganda may well have worked, as initially even some senior ministers of the BJP government went overboard and behaved like street bullies. Some loonies of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad even wanted to make Pokharan an exclusive `Hindu' property.

But luckily, in Vajpayee, India had a statesman to steer clear of these thorny issues. Today, not only is India much more secure, but even a newly nuclearised Pakistan has become more responsible.

To be sure, Indian nuclearisation was aimed at neither China nor Pakistan. It was, in fact, a challenge to the kind of new world order that the US was foisting. This new world order had no place for India that is home to nearly one-fifth of mankind. Indian nuclearisation was and is a challenge to the US and its arbitrary ways.The sooner we understand it the better it is.

The tragedy is that except for people like Sharad Pawar, Madhavrao Shinde and Natwar Singh, most other individuals as well as parties turned Pokharan II into a partisan issue and opposed the `nuclear insurance' simply because the BJP got the credit for it.

If we accept that Pokharan II was a challenge to western hegemony, economic, political and military, then we must accept that there will be no quarters given us!

It will also mean that India has no choice but to build an arsenal with a global reach. A sizeable stock of thermonuclear weapons that has the ability to threaten the existence of the world itself. Around 300 mega tonnes of nuclear weapons is the only guarantee against a western misadventure. According to most scientists, this is the lowest threshold for nuclear winter. India has no choice but to attain these levels if its nuclear might is to be taken as a serious deterrent.

But even with this kind of nuclear stockpile, the nation will not befully secure as the threat will then surface through internal dissent, directly funded and armed from outside. The only antidote to that is faster economic growth, removal of poverty and social justice under a secular framework. This is more difficult than the splitting of an atom or even testing a miniaturised thermonuclear weapon.

The author is an ex-colonel in the Indian Army