29-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
The Bomb That wasn't: How South Asia Lost Its Chance at Peace
History is shaped not just by what happened, but also by what didn't. In the early 1980s, India was ready for a pre-emptive strike on its sworn enemy that would have rewritten the future of South Asia. The plan was bold. Israeli jets would take off from Jamnagar airbase, refuel midair, and obliterate Pakistan's Kahuta nuclear facility—then still vulnerable. Operation Bonsai, as the Israelis reportedly codenamed it, had support in the highest quarters of Indian intelligence. But it was vetoed by Indira Gandhi—twice. Once in 1982. Again in 1984.
Why?
Washington's arrogance. Pakistan was its Cold War ally. The same Washington that now sermonises India about non-proliferation while running covert operations from Tel Aviv to Tehran. That selfsame empire sent veiled warnings of 'consequences' if India dared cross the line. And so Indira blinked. The rest is nuclear fallout. Now imagine a counter-history. Had the Kahuta facility been flattened before it reached criticality, Pakistan's nuclear deterrent would never have existed. No mushroom cloud diplomacy, no doctrine of 'plausible deniability' through nuclear cover that emboldened the Pakistani deep state to launch asymmetric warfare. Kargil might never have happened. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack could have met with full-spectrum retaliation. The 26/11 Mumbai massacre might not have been followed by a strategic shrug and a surgical strike for optics. More importantly, Pakistan would have been forced to behave like a conventional state, not a jihadist startup with nukes.
Instead what has Islamabad done since going nuclear?
Hosted Osama bin Laden under the nose of its military in Abbottabad.
Launched Kargil under the nuclear umbrella.
