Overview
- Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge marked the 52nd anniversary with a tribute that praised Indira Gandhi’s leadership and credited Indian scientists.
- India’s first nuclear device was detonated at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan in 1974 under the codename Operation Smiling Buddha.
- The effort was run by BARC teams overseen by physicist Raja Ramanna, and the government described the blast as a peaceful nuclear explosion.
- Pokhran was selected for its remote desert terrain, which allowed an underground test far from population centers.
- In 1998, India returned to Pokhran for a series of tests under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and R. Chidambaram, reinforcing capability and influencing nuclear diplomacy.