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A baby girl crying in the rubble after the nuclear attack in Hiroshima. According to reports, about 80 thousand people died immediately after the bomb fell and almost all the buildings were destroyed.
6 August 1945
9 August 1945
These are two dates that call attention to the threat to the existence of the world from nuclear weapons.
About 76 years ago today, in the year 1945, the first and last time an atomic bomb was dropped on a country in the world.
The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 9.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki testify to this day how atomic bombs can destroy humanity. The people there have not been able to recover from the effects of nuclear attack even after 76 years.
On the other hand, today, even 76 years after that devastation, nine countries of the world have more than 13,000 nuclear weapons, which have the potential to cause much more destruction than at present.
Sweden’s think-tech ‘Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’ (SIPRI) released its annual report on Monday . In this, many important information related to nuclear weapons has come to the fore.
According to the report, this is the first time since the end of the Cold War (1990) that the reduction of nuclear weapons in the world has stopped.
It has also been told in the report that India’s neighboring countries China and Pakistan are far ahead in terms of nuclear weapons.
Some of the more important points in the SIPRI report are as follows:
At the beginning of 2011, nine nuclear-armed countries (USA, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea) had a total of about 13,080 nuclear warheads.
• Of these, 3,825 nuclear weapons are kept ready for any kind of operation immediately. Last year their number was 3,720.
• Out of these 3,825 weapons, about 2,000 nuclear weapons are from the US and Russia, which have been placed in high alert mode.
• Israel has about 90 and North Korea has 40-50 nuclear weapons.
• North Korea has made about 10 new nuclear weapons compared to last year and at present it has 40-50 nuclear warheads.
• China has made 30 new nuclear weapons compared to last year and now has about 350 nuclear weapons.
• Pakistan has made five new nuclear weapons compared to last year and it now has about 165 nuclear warheads.
• India made six new nuclear weapons last year and now it has about 156 nuclear weapons.
After the release of this report, China is being discussed the most. In the Indian context as well as in the global context.
Looking from the Indian perspective, the border dispute with China is still going on and incidentally this report of SIPRI comes on the completion of one year of the violent conflict between Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galvan Valley.
In this conflict, 20 security forces of India were killed. Since then, the relations between the two countries have not been normal.
Internationally, many powerful countries of the world are trying to surround China all-round.
Whether it is the G-7 summit, the meeting of NATO leaders or the meeting of the Quad countries. The dangers arising from the ever-increasing dominance of China are being talked about in every forum.
At the same time, China is responding aggressively to everyone. Whether its reply to the G-7 countries that ‘the era when small groups used to decide the fate of the world’ or to say to the member countries of NATO that its policy is ‘protective in nature’.
The challenges for India are no less than the neighboring country of Pakistan.
Even though ceasefire is going on along the Line of Control with Pakistan, but when the tension will suddenly increase, nothing can be known about it.
In such a situation, after the report of SIPRI, these questions are constantly arising that why there is such a competition to increase the number of nuclear weapons and what can be its dangers?
Defense analyst Rahul Bedi believes that calling the increase in the number of nuclear weapons ‘race or race’ is not entirely appropriate.
He told the BBC, “We have to understand that the production of nuclear weapons is a continuous process. It is not possible that a country suddenly stops making nuclear weapons and starts again after some time.”
“If the weapon manufacturing stops once, then the whole process will have to be started from the very beginning. So in my opinion it would not be fair to call it a competition,” says Bedi.
If we talk about India, Pakistan and China, then all three are neighboring countries and all three are endowed with nuclear power. On the other hand, India continues to have border disputes with both Pakistan and China.
Rahul Bedi says, “The situation of India, Pakistan and China is very unique. There are very few countries equipped with nuclear power in the world, whose border conflicts go on almost all the time. Whether it is through firing or any other means. from.”
Bedi says that we should also not forget that Pakistan and China are the two countries where the control of nuclear weapons is basically in the hands of the military. In such a situation, this situation becomes even more dangerous for India.
He says, “Another thing to note is that Pakistan and China are not only military allies but also nuclear allies somewhere.”
Rahul Bedi also says that the talk of nuclear disarmament in such a sensitive situation seems to be just an ‘ideological dream’.
It is also worth noting that while on one hand the world is battling the deadly corona epidemic for the last two years, on the other hand, nuclear weapons are being spent wildly.
Just last week, there was a report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization .
It was told in this report that in the year 2020, countries with nuclear power spent an amount of $ 72.6 billion only on nuclear weapons. This expenditure is $ 1.4 billion more than in the year 2019.
The report, published under the title ‘Complicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spading’, describes how governments were passing people’s tax money to defense contractors through lobbying, despite a shattered economy and a deteriorating health system during the pandemic. Increase your spending on weapons.
According to ICAN, the US was at number one and China second among the countries that spent the most on nuclear weapons during the pandemic. India ranked sixth and Pakistan seventh in this list:
America: $37.4 billion
China: $10.1 billion
Russia: $8 billion
UK: $6.2 billion
France: $5.7 billion
India: $2.4 billion
Pakistan: $1 billion
North Korea: $667 million
APJ Abdul Kalam, a scientist who played an important role in making India equipped with nuclear capability and called the Missile Man of India, had said that nuclear weapons prevent other countries from attacking us, so they are ‘weapons of peace’. ‘ Huh.
Nuclear weapons are also often called ‘Weapon of Deterrence’ i.e. ‘War-stopping Weapons’.
Sangeeta Saxena , editor of ‘Aviation and Defense Universe’, a news website based on defense affairs, believes the same.
He told the BBC, “Nuclear weapons are never really meant for attack, but their purpose is defensive.”
Sangeeta says, “If we talk about India, Pakistan and China, then I don’t think that these countries will ever attack each other with nuclear weapons because all three have nuclear weapons. The situation does not even come to nuclear attacks and this is the reason why nuclear weapons are called Weapon of Deterrence.
Ghazala Wahab , executive editor of defense magazine ‘Force’, also agrees with Sangeeta.
She says, “I don’t think India will ever have a nuclear war with Pakistan or China. Nuclear weapons are not made for the purpose of being used in war.”
Praveen Sawhney , editor of ‘Force’ magazine, believes that since India and China have a ‘no first use policy’ regarding nuclear weapons, these concerns are automatically reduced to a great extent. However, Pakistan’s stand on this policy is not clear.
The ‘No First Use Policy’ means the policy of not carrying out a nuclear attack from our side first.
However, countries such as the US, Russia, Britain, France and North Korea are not part of the ‘no first use’ policy. At the same time, Israel’s position on this is unclear.
Praveen Sawhney says that the concern about the increasing number of nuclear weapons is especially expressed because Western countries do not follow the ‘no first use’ policy.
At the same time, Praveen also says that there is no need to worry too much about which country has how many nuclear weapons.
He said, “The report of SIPRI comes every year and there is not much difference to be seen in it. Sometimes a country has more weapons and sometimes some less.”
He says, “The number or number of atomic bombs does not matter because one bomb is enough for destruction. So these numbers don’t matter much.
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