Apj Abdul Kalam – The Man Who Fooled The America

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Krishna Hariharan
May 15, 2019   •  118 views

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He was additionally the Scientific Adviser to Defense Minister and Secretary, Department of Defense Research and Development from July 1992 to December 1999.

Amid this period, the previous president drove the weaponization of key rocket frameworks and the Pokhran-II atomic tests as a team with the Department of Atomic Energy, which made India an atomic weapon state.

NUCLEAR WEAPON COUNTRIES
The 5 major countries that owned Nuclear weapons were The USA, UK, Russia, China, and France. They themselves formed an association and never allowed or assisted other countries in nuclear technologies. After India's first atomic test completed on May 18, 1974, in Rajasthan's Pokhran, no atomic tests occurred till 1998.

THE CORE TEAM
The core team was formed, and all three members were from the state Tamil Nadu, India which is a rare coincidence. The three thamizhans were Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam (DRDO), Dr. Chidambaram – Chairman of atomic energy commission and Dr. Santhanam.

58 Engineers were exceptionally picked for the critical errand of keeping up the poles where India's atomic gadgets would be tried. They were advised to take all measures to guarantee all out mystery.

WHY POKHRAN?
Pokhran is a city and a region situated in the Jaisalmer region of the Indian province of Rajasthan. It is a remote area in the Thar Desert locale which is the motivation behind why this was picked as an atomic test site.

Another reason for choosing Pokhran is that it is close to Pakistan. APJ and Vajpayee found no better chance than this to warn Pakistan and indirectly telling them that India is capable of giving it back to them.

THE CHALLENGE
The biggest challenge that India had was to conduct this test without even giving a hint to the other countries because those 5 countries with nuclear power made a decision that no other country should conduct nuclear experiemnts saying that other countries are not knowledgeable enough. For India, to do this nuclear test, various spy satellites of America and other countries have to be deceived.

To conduct a nuclear test, a shaft has to be constructed underground so that radiation doesn't affect the outsiders. If that shaft is constructed during the daytime, then that would give a hint to the Americans through satellites.

Hence the entire shaft was constructed completely during the night and all the scientist including APJ worked every night wearing Army uniform to make others believe that they are army officials from the border. Kalam was undercover as Major Prithiviraj. He has to work here at nights and be as a DRDO officer in the mornings so that there is no doubt created.

THE TEST DAY
May 11, 1998, the nuclear test started. Totally there were 5 nuclear bomb tests were conducted in 3 shafts and that came to an end after two days on 13th May 1998. The whole world and powerful Nations were shocked to see a country like India doing such great work. This went down as the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA – USA) greatest failure.

On May 11, 2015, the 'Rocket Man of India' had tweeted,"Today, I remember the hot day of 1998 at Pokhran: 53C. When most of the world was sleeping; India's nuclear era emerged."

THE SAVAGE MOMENT
The five nuclear bombs were named as Shakti1, Shakti 2…. Shakti 5. The 3 shafts inside which the test took place were named as Kumbhakaran, Taj Mahal and the third one was named as WHITE HOUSE (indicating The USA’s white house)

After India’s successful nuclear test, the American articles read “INDIA TESTED THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPON IN THE WHITE HOUSE!”

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