{"id":322809,"date":"2020-05-02T10:14:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T10:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=322809"},"modified":"2020-05-02T10:14:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T10:14:07","slug":"from-tehelka-archives-may-12-2001-operation-poorna-vijay-scenes-from-a-nuke-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/from-tehelka-archives-may-12-2001-operation-poorna-vijay-scenes-from-a-nuke-win\/","title":{"rendered":"From Tehelka Archives May 12, 2001: Operation Poorna Vijay: Scenes from a nuke win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Operation Poorna Vijay was concluded \u201csuccessfully\u201d on May 10, a day before the third anniversary of the historic Pokhran II nuclear tests. After three years of loudly announcing its ambition to be accepted as a nuclear weapon country, India marked this transition by conducting war exercises in a simulated backdrop of a nuclear conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

These war games were intended to test the capability of its land, air and sea forces in a scenario where India has already come under attack by weapons of mass destruction-chemical, biological or nuclear. This exercise will provide valuable results for battlefield commanders and tacticians in the Army Headquarters and warfare schools across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exercises were conducted keeping in mind Pakistan\u2019s refusal to sign a compact on \u201cno-first use\u201d of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the results of Operation Poorna Vijay will be closely scrutinised to fill the gap in launching offensive\u00a0<\/span>operations after India has come under nuclear attack. Since India has\u00a0<\/span>already declared its preference for a \u201cno first use\u201d policy, the strategic planners in the Indian military were visualising a\u00a0<\/span>scenario in which it has come under a\u00a0<\/span>surprise nuclear attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

The calculation, therefore, is not only to maintain a credible second strike capability (variously called minimum nuclear\u00a0<\/span>deterrent or credible nuclear deterrent), but also to ensure that India\u2019s strategic forces (nuclear forces) preserve their\u00a0<\/span>capability, power and means to retaliate. In conjunction with this, the ground\u00a0<\/span>attack troops, backed by incisive air operations, should be in a position to totally overwhelm the enemy. Hence the codename \u201cOperation Poorna Vijay\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simply put, a war in a nuclear scenario cannot be longdrawn. There has to be a quick, effective and devastating response to smother the enemy\u2019s defensive and offensive capabilities. During the Kargil operation, India had\u00a0<\/span>refused to cross the Line of Control (LoC). Observers had explained this deference to the LoC as India\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>acceptance of the fact that any\u00a0<\/span>escalation of conventional conflict might result in the usage of nuclear weapons as the \u201cweapon of last resort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering the fact that both India and Pakistan were new kids on the nuclear block with no<\/span>
\neffective command and control of their strategic forces, and with no checks and balances and a system of \u201calerts\u201d to control the launching of nuclear weapons, the world community was concerned at the potential of a nuclear war.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a scenario had made the Indian leadership and military circumspect and unwilling to escalate the Kargil conflict. This scenario still exists (see\u00a0<\/span>Nuclear command-and-control: chaos on the subcontinent).<\/span><\/p>\n

What has changed is India\u2019s relations with the West, especially the USA. Back in May 1998, USA had slammed sanctions on India for its nuclear tests. Today, India is a supporter (the first) of the US Nuclear Missile Defence Plan. The US is expected to lift the sanctions in due course.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

letters@tehelka.com<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operation Poorna Vijay was concluded \u201csuccessfully\u201d on May 10, a day before the third anniversary of the historic Pokhran II nuclear tests. After three years of loudly announcing its ambition to be accepted as a nuclear weapon country, India marked this transition by conducting war exercises in a simulated backdrop of a nuclear conflict. These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":322814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322816,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322809\/revisions\/322816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/322814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}