There has to be logic in propaganda. But India Today portrays as if the entire population of Balochistan was affected by the May 28, 1998 Chagai nuclear tests radiation release. If that is true, then where were Kulbhushan and company working? Were they wearing gas masks during their sabotage plots in the province? India Today says the generations in Chagai and elsewhere have “developed genetic abnormalities, because of the release of radiation; the tests were done in haste. The radioactivity contaminated the ground water, people are migrating and being treated as enemy; they are living miserable life.” 

Indian propagandists must know the tests were of the nukes, not nuts. It was not done in haste though in response to India’s own May 12 tests. Pakistan was even ready to go for nuclear tests in 1984, during the Zia regime. The selection of sites, deep digging of the hills, preparations for detonation, etc had been made long before 1984. Besides, all kinds of collateral damage, aftershocks, effects and causes had already been evaluated and calculated. The rescue plans are said to be still ready but the detonations were so sophisticated that not a single individual of the provincial population got affected, not to talk of generations. Unlike Pakistan, Bhopal’s Fukushima like nuclear tragedy is known to everyone. Frequent killing of nuclear scientists across India speaks of the tales which the Indian propagandists do not like to mention. There must be a method to the madness. 

MARYA MUFTY,  

Lahore, August 24.