HOWEVER INCONGRUOUS the image of the smiling Buddha might appear juxtaposed against three nuclear explosions on Buddha Jayanti, the famous coded message to Indira Gandhi following the first successful explosion at Pokhran in 1974 has acquired a new, symbolic meaning today.

India has arrived on the threshold of superpower status, literally with a bang. The reactions to the Government's stunning act of dare-devilry are certain to follow predictable lines: The US will threaten sanctions; Pakistan will vocally proclaim 'We told you so' and might simultaneously test-fire a few more Ghauris, Ghaznavis or whatever else the Chinese have equipped them with, China will

abandon all pretence to peaceful, friendly intentions towards us; India's already illusory prospects of procuring a permanent seat in the UN Security Council will recede deeper into improbability.

Bankrolled by the greenback, that powerful body of domestic opinion that has been lobbying for India's acquiescence to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Opposition will add a new weapon to its bloated arsenal of arguments against the "jingoistic" BJP, thereby putting the Government somewhat on the defensive. The proponents of butter over guns will take out their calculators to compute the number of schools, hospitals and other such monuments to welfarism that could have been built with the money exploded at Pokhran. Never mind the fact that none of these would probably have materialised anyway! The next few weeks are likely to witness a cascade of statements, both domestic and foreign, lamenting India's ostensible, self-solicited isolation in the world community.

Undoubtedly, the experiments conducted at Pokhran today carry a significant element of risk with them. But all these are outweighed by what they will do to the nation's self-esteem. For nearly 20 years, India has been slipping in its own eyes. Insurgency, terrorism, secessionism and mounting parochial sentiments have been eating into the vitals of the nation's resolve. Patronisingly described by Westerners as a "functioning anarchy", India has progressed steadily towards losing even the qualifying prefix. A country that cannot look itself in the eye, cannot hope to establish eye contact with any semblance of authority with others. China can cock a snook at the world despite Tiananmen; American investors, in the manner of 18th Century Hong merchants nevertheless

kow-tow to the court at Beijing. India, despite emerging as a model of democratic freedoms, is subjected to tirades in the name of human rights. Washington, the global supercop, turns a blind eye to Islamabad's shenanigans-first in Punjab and then Kashmir. The US also seeks unrelentingly to bamboozle India into signing a patently unequal CTBT so that the nuclear haves can live in cosy comfort, subjecting the havenots to nuclear tyranny in perpetuity. Among the members of this elite club of nuclear haves is a country which went to war with India 36 years ago and continues to illegally occupy a vast amount of our territory. The mere exhibition of nuclear fire-power might not immediately alter these realities; nor will they change global military equations.

But they will assertively establish that India refuses to accept pushover status forever; that, while it may be a soft state internally, an iron fist camouflages the velvet glove when it comes to dealing with external threats. Internally, too, public opinion has been unstintedly in favour of India abandoning its hypocrisy and declaring itself a full-fledged member of the international Big League, instead of remaining its hesitant candidate member Having demonstrated its ability to indigenously produce the most sophisticated nuclear technology, thereby sending a firm warning to its hostile western neighbour and its sponsors, New Delhi might now be justified even in reconsidering its approach to the CTBT. All these years, India has not been possessed by an urge to acquire nuclear weapons for mere window dressing. All it has sought to tell the world is that its security concerns need to be addressed in light of the powerful combines that threaten its Independence and integrity.

The pleas fell on deaf ears. India's battle to regain self-esteem, both internal and external, is several steps closer to a victorious conclusion thanks to the Government's aplomb. Monday's explosions should be powerful enough to awaken the most malevolent Kumbhakaranas of the world community who have always regarded India as a wounded civilisation, incapable of dealing with itself, leave alone others.

By- Chandan Mitra