Nehru and Defence Infrastructure

One more interesting contemplative point of discussion is that in 1958 – 1959, Nehru spoke to USA President Dwight Eisenhower’s senior aides Major William Corson, “If India was to accept Dalai Lama, the USA would have to help New Delhi Develop- Nuclear Weapons.”

Major William has written in his book, “Nehru was hard bargainer and (he) made it amply clear to Eisenhower that India wants own nuclear assurance against China”

White House never certified or verified it, but Corson further writes that “Eisenhower decided that the U.S. would accept 400 Indian students into American graduate programmes in Nuclear Sciences. The Course of the negotiation left no doubt that Nehru would assign the American trained Scientists to produce Nuclear Weapons.”

Readers may have remembered that Dalai Lama came to India on 30 March, 1959, and Nehru Govt. gave him religious asylum.

You may have kept in your memory that in last days of one year of the freedom on 10 August, 1948, Atomic Energy Commission was set up under the department of Scientific Research, and its first executive was Dr. Homi K Bhabha. Today in our country, there are five centrers in which one center out of two namely : Center Atomic Minerals Directorate for Explosion & Research,(AMD), Hyderabad was established in 1948, and the another one Bhabha Atomic Research Center was established in 1954 on 3rd of January.

Today in our country there exist 11 state run factories of Arms & Ammunition out of which 4 factories were existed in British India Period, some were private as well. In the period of Nehru, 4 factories:1- Goa Shipyard Ltd, 1957, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, 1964, Bharat Electronic Ltd. 1954, & DRDO, 1958, and in the same pace 4 other companies were nationalized. Those are named: Hindustan Aeronanareties Ltd 1947, Golden Reach Ship Builders & Engineers, 1960, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders 1960, and Ordinance Factory Board 1954. The performances shown by these factories are marvelous but the problematic issue is that they can’t provide to leaders and bureaucrats anything or any benefit except logistic supports, so the ultimate aim is to privatize all of them. It surprises me to say that till the date (today) not even a single factory could be set up.

In 1954, the INS Vikrant Aircraft that was the first Aircraft Carrier in Asia was bought, and this very Aircraft was commissioned in 1962.

In the mirror of reality Nehru was always serious on the issue of China. It remained a serious competition between him and China. It was the China that always wanted to suppress us by force, and Nehru understood this political strategy being maintained by China with shrewdness. Once on 7 December, 1961, he stated in the Lok Sabha: “A huge elephant of a country sitting on our border is itself a fact that we could not ignore.”

But on 3rd of September, 1963, It was opined by him in Rajya Sabha, “The country that is not industrialized cannot make its military strong” Might be the fact, he laid the foundation of all whatever basic requests were made by Defence & Security Body of India. It was only his vision that he thought to set up Aircraft Carrier, Atomic Energy etc. Sardar Patel was politician and a serious leader but didn’t have Global Vision in him as I believe.

Deepak Saxena

Saxena is a Psephologist and a Journalist.