To the newspaper with the largest circulation in the country, Malayala Manorama, the Pokharan II tests were not only an achievement of the nation’s new rulers but, even more, a personal triumph for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The paper was so emphatic on this point that it even related Vajpayee’s his change of residence to his official bungalow at Race Course Road on that particular day to what it hailed as his courageous decision to conduct the nuclear tests.

By giving his order for conducting three tests together, he had proved that he was capable of taking bold decisions, Manorama commented. The newspaper also claimed Vajpayee was happy that he was able to do the job which his predecessors after Indira Gandhi did not dare to.

By exploding the nuclear device, the BJP had implemented the most important item in the party’s programme, the paper pointed out. But, its particular admiration was preserved for the personality to symbolise Pokharan II. In a separate report titled "Declaration in the style of the American President", Manorama compared Vajpayee’s press conference with occasions of President Bill Clinton making important announcements in the White House by reading his six-line message in one minute.

On May 12, Manorama carried the photograph of the Prithvi missile which was exhibited in the 1998 Republic Day parade in New Delhi, and underscored that it is capable of carrying nuclear bombs, implying the possibility of India going in for nuclear weaponisation. The story accompanied two photographs, one of the Pokharan site and the other of the Prime Minister announcing the tests. It further said that the BJP government had acquired a "new glow" (BJP Sarkarinnu Puthan Thilakam). According to Manorama, the government’s aim is not just making crude atom bombs, but evolving a total nuclear plan.

The other major Malayalam newspaper, Mathrubhoomi, in a special report from New Delhi, reminded he readers of Pakistan’s late Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto’s rhetorical statement that his country would make the atom bomb even if its people had to starve and eat grass immediately after India’s test in 1974. The newspaper asserted that Pakistan’s nuclear strength was based on borrowed technology and that India was far ahead of its neighbour in terms of technology. The newspaper’s assertion turned out to be off the mark when Pakistan, too, conducted tests in a fortnight.

Any objectivity on Pokharan II went, ironically, with a political affiliation. Deshabhimani, mouthpiece of the ruling Left-led coalition, was the only major Malayalam newspaper to voice concern over the repercussions of the tests and tensions they would create in the subcontinent.