Blast in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre & WMD

By Zaheerul Hassn

The week ending December, 2009 has again opened many possibilities for the global nuke experts and IAEA to investigate the real troubles of Indian nuke plants. Year 2009 is also leaving number of unresolved questions which regarding Indian nuke safety and security and might not be resolved in 2010 also.  On second last day of 2009, a high intensity explosion at a chemical laboratory inside Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) took placed which resulted into the death of two junior scientists, Umang Singh and Partha Bagh. Though Indian authorities claimed that no reactor, radioactivity or radiation was involved in the incident but severely charred bodies of the scientists and totally burnt equipment revealed that something very serious happened inside the plant. It is important to highlight here that BARC was started in 1954, as the Atomic Energy Establishment and apparently conducts the research in Biotechnology and Gama Rays.

The initial investigations regarding incident of BARC is giving three leads to solve the mysterious occurrence. Firstly, Indian scientists might be carrying out some experiment on biological and chemical agents. The experiment failed and chemical reaction caused damaged to the lives of the scientists and the laboratory.  According to a world news agency staff working on the plants also heard the blast inside the project.  The blast and condition of the death bodies do confirm that India is preparing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The preparation of WMD is the desired of Indian top military and political leadership. The intensity on this venture has been multiplied since self predicted Chinese threat on the border is being considered by the Indian leadership.

Second opinion could be that Indian scientists were yet to achieve expertise and hall mark in the nuke field. Their weak knowledge and causal attitude might become the reason of their death. But poor expertise of Indian nuke Programme has also put the lives of Indian and regional masses at stake. In this connection again we can noticed the lapses of security. There are reports that junior Indian scientists were busy in carrying out experiments on preparing some chemical and biological weapons but failed to tackle the situation because of their less experience. It was further reported that they even never have been guided by their senior colleagues. August 27, 2009 interview of senior nuke scientist K Santhanam, with “Times of India” confirms that nuke test at Pokhran II further endorse the weakness of Indian nuke programme. He admitted that the only thermonuclear device tested was a “fizzle”. The incidents of Kaiga, Pockran and now BARC do reflects that Indian nuke plants are real danger to humanity since her scientists are lacking requisite experience in this field.

Third version could be that some member out of nuke staff intentionally carried out some sabotage activities inside the plant with the purpose of killing these two junior members of the team. These two comrades might be having some knowledge of on going Indian nuke proliferation and killed by the Uranium smugglers present on Indian nuke plants. Earlier, too on June 13, 2009 dead body of Indian famous nuke scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam has been found from Kali River. The scientist was working on Kaiga Atomic Power Station since last eight years. Reportedly, he was in possession of highly sensitive information and might be doubted for Indian nuke proliferation. Mahalingam was involved in training apprentices on a replica of the actual reactor.

However the exact cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained and need deliberate efforts to dig out the actual causes of repeated nuke incidents in India. IAEA should send some teams of expertise to inspect the Indian nuke plants since continue occurrences may prove fatal to human life. Indian government should also carry out detail investigations through global experts since some members of the police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) of the centre could be involved in the series of nuke accidents in India. Indian Prime Minister should not declare BARC incident as mischief and should seriously remove the weaknesses of the safety and security of Indian Nuke programme.

In fact, the incident of BARC need to be thrashed out seriously since India is already heading towards making WMD. So called think tank Bharat Verma, Editor Indian Defence Review has started propagating that China and Pakistan would be attacking India in 2012.  Indian scholars on their government directions are creating hype in the masses by design, since they   are trying to divert their public attention from poor nuke safety arrangements, the strong ongoing separatist Maoist movement and regional issues like Khalistan, Kashmir, territorial disputes and water conflicts with the regional issue.  Thus, we can deduce from the BARC incident that India is preparing for global war and her propaganda campaign against China and Pakistan would be taken as her preemptive action against two allies. Chinese and Pakistan governments are already taking notice of new development in the region. Both the governments have the concern over increasing USA influence in Asia and Indo-USA Nuke Deal. USA Nuke exerts do have serious reservations about the said deal since Indian nuke safety arrangements are very poor. India is already facing the charges of smuggling and theft of enriched uranium.

The world community should force India to open her Nuke Programme for inspection because repeated accidents are serious threat to China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka because of the location of Nuke Plants. IAEA should direct India to remove the prevailing tension in the nuke staffs since the involvement of RAW has created panic in them. In short the detail investigations are required to be carried out at Indian nuke programme, covering the type of weapons being made, arrangement of safety, cause of murder and killing of nuke scientists and staff, reasons of accidents and   smuggling and theft of enriched Uranium.