In May 1982, a nuclearist in the American officialdom sent a memorandum for the President’s consideration, advocating a "concerted media blitz" as a response to the anti-nuclear challenge. According to Robert Jay Lifton and Richard Falk , the official’s memorandum analysed the anti-nuclear movement as one consisting of "such perennial elements as the old-line pacifists, environmentalists, the disaffected left, and various communist elements" but admitted that there was also participation on an increasing scale in the US of the churches, the "loyal opposition" and, most importantly, "the unpoliticised public" (Indefensible Weapons: The Political and Psychological Case Against Nuclearism, Basic Books Inc., New York, 1982).

Not only does this episode show how difficult nuclear weapons policy-makers find it to comprehend, not to speak of countenancing, dissent. It also underscores their recognition of the potentially tremendous capacity of the media to influence collective thinking on issues that require a wide debate, if not the scope for it to spread the kind of awareness that it takes to reverse the phenomenon of nuclearism. Sixteen years later, in May 1998, India and Pakistan joined the grand hypocrisy fostered by the so-called superpowers that possession of nuclear weapons somehow enhanced a sense of security. Barring a few exceptions, the Indian media’s response to this sordid of spectacle of two neighbouring nations, both ruled at present by insular nationalist absolutists, playing out a politically and psychologically visible arms competition, was barely edifying. Far from exposing the illegitimacy of nuclear weaponisation, the media succumbed to the two regimes’ propagandist concerns, their vague appeal to nationalist sentiments and their successful attempts to engender the self-defeatingly ironic idea that security can be achieved only by militarist postures.

This paper seeks to document the role of popular Tamil magazines in endorsing the nuclearist syndrome, mostly uncritically, but sometimes with the accompaniment of arguments about the risks associated with nuclear weapons and feeble questions about the rationale and timing of the latest blasts and counterblasts in the subcontinent. The journals chosen for a brief analysis all have a reasonably wide circulation, with each of them having a niche market for itself. While the reader response to these magazines’ coverage of the nuclear tests, especially in the immediate aftermath of the Pokharan vs Chagai competition, cannot be accurately assessed, it can be seen that editorial policy, won over by the bomb’s enchantment, was by and large oriented towards furthering the nuclearist cause – by describing the tests as the ultimate achievement in science and technology, besides being a political masterstroke that ought to silence the nation’s belligerent adversaries into non-action, at least for the present.

Among the mainstream magazines, it was Kalki, a weekly with a reputation for sobriety and restraint since the early forties, that unambiguously criticised the nuclear tests from day one, advancing trenchant arguments in support of its stand. Nakkeeran, the sensationalist tabloid, too, analysed the dangers of nuclearisation in an article that gave as well a historical account of the development of nuclear science in India since the days of Homi Bhabha and the circumstances of Pokharan I under the supervision of H.D. Sethna.

Major Tamil dailies led this media support regime for atomic adventurism, with the second largest circulated Tamil newspaper, Dinamalar, being the most outstanding example of nuclear idolatry, virtually worshipping the bomb and its makers. To be fair, the newspapers provided quality news coverage to the tests, seeking to explain with not merely news stories, but also articles, graphics and interviews the nature of the bombs, the details of the tests on both sides of the border and the worldwide reaction to the issue. However, Dinamalar, which does not carry editorials, resorted to a clever mixture of headlines and display to categorise opposition to the tests as "threats" instigated by the United States or expressions of frustration and helplessness by countries envious of India, and to play down the economic implications of the Western sanctions.

In a highly rhetorical gesture, the daily carried an appeal on its front page (May 14, 1998) under the heading ‘Let us strengthen the Prime Minister’s hands’, calling upon the readers to send telegrams to Vajpayee that they whole-heartedly supported the nuclear tests and that they would stand behind him in the national effort to defeat Western sanctions. It also carried a number of interviews with young men and women and prominently announced that Pokharan II had universal support in the country.

The most popular Tamil daily, Dina Thanthi, which has the largest circulation drawn from the lower and middle strata of society, provided, in its well-established style, good, non-commentative coverage of the nuclear tests, but impliedly projected the tests as a major achievement, a landmark event in the country’s history and essentially something that could form the foundation for national pride. In the only instance of commentative coverage, it published a frontpage cartoon, depicting Uncle Sam as venturing to give some gratuitous advice to Vajpayee even while holding a bomb himself (May 15, 1998). This lone instance sought to reinforce the propaganda that India was going ahead with the tests with great fortitude and in defiance of motivated opposition from the United States. One of its news stories (May 20) was about the mythical existence of a "nuclear button". It claimed that the Prime Minister, had had a nuclear delivery system installed in his office so that he could launch a nuclear-tipped missile at his whim by the press of the button.

Dinamani, from the Indian Express group of publications, which caters to elite and educated sections, gleefully supported the tests in its coverage and its editorials, but also published a few articles critical of the tests, and presenting varied viewpoints about the hazards of nuclear war, the implications of a nuclear-weaponisation programme on the economy and so on. It commented in a leader on May 13 that the tests were a "security imperative" as well as a prior requirement, in the present geopolitical context, for India to make a claim for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. The daily highlighted customary opinion in India about the discriminatory nature of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and their "uselessness" in eliminating nuclear armaments. However, it called for a global disarmament effort. In yet another editorial on May 18, it hailed the Vajpayee’s leadership and said the nation was attaining "new dimensions" under him.

The very next day, it came out with another editorial that rhapsodised over the operation being codenamed ‘Shakti’, pointing out its "appropriateness" for the emergence of a resurgent force in India. In the process, it also coopted the pre-nuclear-age Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi’s support, quoting an extract from one of his poems to claim that his vision of a Primal Force to protect the motherland from various evils had at last borne fruit. It betrayed no qualms about misusing a devotional song from one of the country’s most catholic poets for endorsing the government’s agenda of nuclear militarism.

However, with almost predictable irony, the same daily suddenly voiced concern about a possible arms race in South Asia. The occasion was, as one could expect, provided by the counterblasts of Pakistan on May 28. On May 30, Dinamani’s editorial titled ‘Test for Peace’ referred to the possible collapse of the economy if the two neighbours entered into a mad nuclear armaments race -- a point that was equally valid after the Indian nuclear salvo, but which occurred to the Indian media only when Pakistan scored its equalisers. The paper also sought to distinguish the Indian bomb from the Pakistani bomb by saying India’s was based on indigenous technology, while the latter was developed by using "stolen technology". The daily’s attempts to look for means to score moral points over Pakistan was also seen its comment that Pakistan had at last attained its "dream of developing an Islamic bomb".

This (probably) unconscious change in attitude towards the nuclear dilemma after the Pakistani tests is also perceptible in other publications, notably Ananda Vikatan. The issue dated May 24, 1998, had a cover illustration symbolically saying that the tests were an occasion for great national pride. It showed an Indian commoner sitting atop the Ashok Pillar, the tricolour in hand and a triumphant smile on his face, with a photograph of a mushroom cloud as the background. The Tamil world ‘vallarasu’ (superpower) was printed on the photograph, with the letter ‘va’ being stylistically represented in the shape of a bomb, and the symbol of the atomic field sketched within it. Thus, it used multiple symbolism to glorify the tests.

The same issue carried a cartoon representing the proverbial dove of peace as flexing its "nuclear muscle". On the facing page was an editorial titled ‘Atom Bomb and Ahimsa’. Opening with the analogy of Buddhist monks in the Shaolin Temple mastering kung-fu, the leader sought to emphasise that a country which had adopted the Dharma Chakra as its symbol was unlikely to use the weapon except in self-defence. It went on to claim that nobody but demons need to be afraid of the ‘chakrayudha’ in the hands of Maha Vishnu. It also claimed that the government would surely have considered the consequences of conducting the tests and quotes a Kural that runs: Think deeply before acting, but having second thoughts after the action is a matter of shame.

On the lighter side, the issue carried an imaginary interview with Atal Behari Vajpayee, showing him as talking only about the nuclear tests in response to a wide range of questions on contemporaneous crises and controversies, in the process, exposing a ‘bomb’ mindset. The cover story was a laudatory piece on the nuclear tests, but also raised questions about the timing of the tests and elicited positive replies from the establishment. IGCAR Director Placid Rodriguez and Anna University Vice-chancellor R M Vasagam justified the tests and sought to answer criticism in their brief interviews.

A translation of a Hindi poem by Vajpayee, with a pacifist theme, was published to portray the Prime Minister as endearingly peace-loving. In an interesting side-bar, a despatch from Rajasthan said the residents of Pokharan and surrounding villages were deeply gratified by the tests, despite 80 per cent of the huts in some places being damaged beyond repair.

In a question-and-answer column, the weekly’s Associate Editor Madan described the tests as something akin to Vivekananda’s "majesty", in which saintly patience could co-exist with physical prowess. The next issue of Vikatan (May 31) published half a dozen letters praising the editorial and cover cartoon. There was none voicing any other point of view.

The issue featured an interview with Dr R Chidambaram’s wife and a small note credited to Dr K Venkatasubramanian, former Vice-chancellor of Pondicherry University, highlighting the ‘Tamil fragrance’ on Pokharan’s soil — a reference to Chidambaram, Abdul Kalam and Santhanam being Tamils. Another noteworthy feature of this issue was the publication of cartoons from various magazines, including one titled ‘Rogue Elephant’ published first in ‘The Sunday Times’, depicting India as a rogue elephant trampling the world under its feet.

The next issue (June 7) covered Pakistan’s ‘counterblasts’ in terms exactly opposite to the same magazine’s coverage of India’s tests. The editorial, written in the form of a letter to ‘Our Friend Pakistan’ , chastised the country for chronically being envious of India. Patronisingly acknowledging that "you, too, are a great soldier", the editorial compared Pakistan to Duryodhana (after reminding the country that the character represented envy and ill-will) and concluded by saying: "Never in history have Duryodhanas ever won."

The accompanying cartoon depicted Pakistan as a poor family living in a small hut, with a huge bomb jutting out of its roof, and the head of the indigent family wearing a smug smile on his face. It also reproduced a cartoon from its sister publication – Vikatan Paper –portraying Pakistan as a drunken lout holding the bomb like a bottle and challenging the world with the words: "Who said only you can have it, as though we can’t?"

By its contemptuous portrayal of Pakistan as an undeserving holder of a nuclear weapon, the magazine presented India’s nuclear tests as something inevitable and logical in the face of Indo-Pak hostility, and seemed to enjoy the ill-will between the two countries.

However, in its next issue (June 14, the magazine came out with a cartoon showing Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif standing face-to-face and both saying, "I am ready for talks", while their mouths were sketched in the shape of atom bombs. It appeared to depict the hypocrisy of two nuclearised states talking the language of peace.

Kumudam:

This most popular weekly treated the Pokharan tests in a most perfunctory way initially, and the only serious comment/coverage is found in the issue dated May 28, which featured a discussion between a BJP state office-bearer and a CPI(M) leader, allotting a page each for expressing diametrically opposite views on the nuclear tests. The issue carried an editorial hailing and even worshipping the nuclear scientists and describing the tests as a major step towards national resurgence. It went on to talk about the possible adverse effects of Western sanctions and recalled that India had overcome such crises in 1965-66 and 1972.

However, the leader gave a twist to the whole issue in a concluding paragraph that spoke about the cost of India’s decision to conduct the tests. "The Prime Minister is duty-bound to explain what the dire necessity is now to conduct the test, knowing that India will have to pay heavily for it," it concluded. An accompanying cartoon depicted the bomb as Vajpayee’s weapon to outwit his troublesome alliance partners, while a mock-biodata of the Prime Minister ended with the suggestion that what he required immediately were not bombs, but plans for the nation.

The magazine’s highly popular question-and-answer column (June 4, however, imparted its editorial policy an element of ambiguity, as it spoke in unqualified terms of the tests as a positive development, one that would help "the younger generation keep its head high". An insightful question by a reader about India going in for the tests within a couple of days of George Fernandes describing China as "enemy number one" elicited a detailed reply from the editors, but, strangely, the reader’s attempt to contextualise the tests was ignored. Instead, the answer offered what it believed was the "inside story". It claimed that the decision to conduct the tests had been made even during the 13-day rule of Vajpayee in 1996, and that the government collapsed just a couple of tests before the tests were done. It claimed that Deve Gowda shot down the proposal after he took over. In 1998, it said Vajpayee had a discussion with Dr R Chidambaram on March 20 and subsequently a telephone talk with Dr Abdul Kalam. An invitation to Dr Kalam to join the Cabinet, it said, was turned down. The two scientists were given the green signal on April 8 -- before, the magazine helpfully added, "Amma (AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha) began giving (the government) headaches". And they were asked to report from time to time to Brajesh Mishra. None but these four knew about the tests until May 9, the day the ruling coalition’s coordination committee met. On that day, George Fernandes was informed, while other important Ministers and the three service Chiefs got to know about it the next day. The President was informed a mere 24 hours before the actual tests, it said.

It proceeds to give a fanciful account of Kalam informing Brajesh Mishra over the telephone with a single word "Done", and the Prime Minister thanking "the two Tamils" for "fulfilling a cherished dream". When the news was broken to the other ministers, there was a "flood of ecstasy" in the room. Advani wept tears of joy. "Like Ayodhya and uniform civil code, the nuclear bomb was one of the BJP’s dreams. The brahmacharis have silently fulfilled this,’ the answer concluded.

The very next question was about the difference between Buddha’s Smile and Shakti’s victory. The answer gave an explanation about the difference between the 1974 explosion (based on nuclear fission) and the 1998 blasts (based on nuclear fusion). It also explained that the thermonuclear device (hydrogen bomb) first required a fission-induced blast to generate the minimum heat required for nuclear fusion to occur, and thereafter, the effect was enhanced 10 times when the hydrogen atoms came together to go off. There was another advantage in the tests, the reply claimed: no further explosions were necessary to enhance India’s nuclear capability, as only computer-generated data were henceforth needed. "So far, this technology was available only to the US and France, and now it is with us," it said. To another question on the approximate cost of making an atom bomb, the magazine put it at Rs 1 crore.

An interesting question from a reader raised a simple problem: were the tests an achievement or a misery? The reply listed two achievements. One was that the tests were a triumph of indigenous research as both Dr Kalam and Dr Chidambaram were educated in India and had not worked abroad. The second point was that it was a "victory for secularism", as a Hindu and a Muslim who were both educated in Christian institutions (Kalam in St Joseph’s College, Tiruchi, and Chidambaram in Madras Christian College) had come together as "Indians" to successfully conduct the tests! "If these two achievements are borne in mind by the younger generation, India need not bow its head before anyone."

However, Pakistan’s counterblasts on May 28 brought the magazine back to its earlier sceptical approach to the idea of nuclearising the subcontinent. In a perceptive editorial (June 11), Kumudam said: "The BJP government has staked the future of the younger generation in a major gamble. Where will this lead to?’ It roundly denounced the "arms race" in the region, as evidenced by Pakistan’s counter-move which, it said, "was both expected and feared". Pointing out that the question of who turned out to be the ultimate winner or loser was irrelevant, as "there is certainly going to be no end to a war of egos", it expressed concern over the price that the two countries would have to pay for the nuclear tests. It also raised the economic problems concomitant on increasing spending on armaments acquisition, when there were more crying socio-economic problems that needed attention.

Significantly, the weekly also placed its finger on what it considered the exact nature of the problem. It said India’s tests alone were not the immediate provocation for Pakistan to follow suit, but it was the unrestrained rhetoric resorted to by important functionaries of the government, including the Home Minister and Defence Minister, after the Pokharan tests. "One can understand the extent to which internal pressure must have played a role in the Pakistan government embarking on the nuclear tests, despite being clearly aware that it might have to face economic sanctions, besides international odium, as a result of the tests. Our ministers’ statements paved the way for such domestic pressures to build up."

Weekly Kumkumam came out with an analytical article in its May 22, 1998, issue about the nuclear tests, and sought to place the issue in the context of what it called the BJP’s ideological commitment to ‘Greater India’. Because of this ideology, the BJP was constrained to show that India was a strong nation. It claimed that India’s decision to conduct the tests were born out of both domestic compulsions and geopolitical reasons.

Elaborating on the former aspect, the article said Vajpayee wanted to extricate himself from the persistent problems within the coalition, and cleverly exploited the fact that the Indian nuclear programme was fairly advanced by then. Though it was a "courageous" decision, Vajpayee had made it primarily to send a message to the world that he was an assertive leader capable of decisive actions. It was quite possible, it said, that he had given proper consideration to the adverse fallout from the nuclear tests. "He probably has an action plan to counter the problems arising out of the tests. He has to have it", it said.

It ended on a sceptical note, claiming that, while the 1974 tests had sent a message that India could make peaceful use of nuclear energy, the 1998 test explosions had proclaimed to the world that India could use nuclear power for "destructive purposes", too.

The article was accompanied by the opinions of a few members of the public, all of whom welcomed and justified the tests. On the very next page, it featured three persons known to the public and their reactions were on expected lines. While S Gurumurthy and Cho S Ramaswamy, both RSS sympathisers, spoke of the tests as something that was long overdue and that gave India a distinct identity as a superpower. Both of them linked a nation’s standing in the world to the possession of nuclear weapons. Only the mighty were wise, they said. The third opinion was that of Tamil writer Gnani, who criticised India for violating its commitment to confining the use of nuclear energy to peaceful purposes. He also questioned the rationale of embarking on an expensive nuclear programme when basic problems of the people remained unsolved.

In a separate article, the magazine described the adverse fallout from the nuclear tests, reporting that Japan had cancelled a meeting in Tokyo to discuss an aid package to India, including an assistance of Rs 12 crore to India’s anti-polio programme. It also mentioned the sanctions imposed by the United States and the condemnation of England, Canada and Norway. Only Russia and France appeared sympathetic to the Indian point of view, it said, but added that even Russia had expressed concern over the development.

The issue’s gossip column also devoted some space to the nuclear tests, claiming that Vajpayee was following Indira Gandhi’s tactic of using issues of national interest to divert people’s attention from her political problems. It sought to link the timing of the tests with the meeting of the coordination committee of the ruling coalition held on May 9, 1998.

Its June 5, 1998, issue did not have any direct comment or coverage of the issue, but it gave prominence to the release of a video album titled ‘Blast’ which celebrates the Pokharan tests. The article briefly describes the nationalist symbolism in the video and quotes its authors to the effect that every Indian should celebrate this great victory. In a related article on the achievements of Anna University’s Crystal Growth Centre, the magazine praised its Director, Prof Ramaswamy, as one who had brought international fame to Indian science ‘long before the nuclear tests’. The next issue gave a brief biographical note on Kalam and Chidambaram, but the magazine appeared to have ignored the nuclear tests by Pakistan altogether.

Among the mainstream Tamil magazines, weekly Kalki stands out, as it unambiguously condemned the nuclear tests and refuted all popular arguments in favour of the measure. In a lengthy and scathing editorial (May 24), it said the Pokharan success represented the Prime Minister’s failure. "It proved neither the BJP’s valour nor the country’s strength." Warning that the tests might lead to a dangerous arms race with neighbouring countries, the leader also underscored the fact that the tests had also enhanced the possibility of a nuclear war. It was meaningless on the part of New Delhi to claim now that the country went in for the tests only to increase the "feeling of security" among the people.

"India has now lost the moral authority to say with pride that though it had the capability to produce such weapons it had refrained from producing them in the interest of peace and global security." It also pilloried the claim that making the bomb was a "great scientific achievement" and wanted the nation’s scientists to concentrate on more productive research ventures.

The magazine also touched on the possible radiation hazards as a result of the tests and claimed that residents of Pokharan had been afflicted by radiation in 1974. "It is a suicidal step to stockpile a weapon that creates alarming consequences even at the time of testing." Apart creating such dangers for the people, the government has also invited economic sanctions and market instability on itself. It ended with an exhortation to the government to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, pointing out that in the changed circumstances, India’s traditional argument that it would not sign a discriminatory document which allowed nuclearised nations to retain their nuclear armaments had lost its moral underpinnings. It concluded by observing that the "outrage" had taken place on Buddha Purnima, a day associated with ahimsa and compassion.