India, well known for typical Bollywood fictional thrillers, made a real sensation with two unexpected incidents of similar nature in Jharkhand and Maharashtra three years back. Indian law enforcement officials arrested criminal gangs for selling unauthorized items. These arrests led to a shocking revelation about the growing sale of radioactive material in India. Criminals were caught red-handed with uranium weighing 6.4 and 7 kilograms in Jharkhand and Maharashtra respectively.
Experts know that the possession of radioactive substances like uranium by criminals and its sale in the open market are not ordinary occurrences. Questions were raised about the shocking excess of criminal gangs to the radioactive substance and their subsequent outreach to potential buyers. Arrests proved just the tip of a bigger iceberg once the shocking thriller further stretched. The unresolved riddle of the pilferage of radioactive substances to unauthorized criminals was resolved with another scandalous exposure.
Two officials of an Indian strategic organization employed at a sensitive facility were arrested from Kolkata over charges of selling 254 kilograms of radioactive material worth $ 573 million. Confiscated material was a weapon-grade variant of uranium. These eye-opening recurring arrests invited the attention of international media, especially investigative journalists. Subsequent focused investigations and deeper exploration revealed the actual dimension of the iceberg. Unauthorized pilferage of radioactive material from Indian nuclear facilities and its sale in the black market was an old practice taking place quietly with the obvious connivance of state officials or employees. Investigative journalistic quarters collated the pieces of mosaic picked from none other than Indian media. There are a number of revealing stories about pilferage, illegal transportation, smuggling and negligent handling of radioactive material in India. Glimpses from a few eye-opening stories reported by Hindustan Times, NDTV, India Today and The Hindu are enough to understand the existence of the nuclear black market in India. It was reported that a container packed with radioactive material was stolen from a fortified research facility located in Rajrappa town of Ramgarh district in August 2006.
International watchdogs should strictly react to the blatant violations of international laws committed repeatedly by India.
On another occasion, police arrested five people in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya for smuggling uranium ore in 2008. Three persons were arrested by the Crime Branch from Mumbai for illegal possession of five kilograms of depleted uranium in 2009. According to a report by the Arms Control Association, Indian authorities had arrested a number of individuals for alleged trading of weapons-grade uranium.
In October 1994, four Indian villagers were arrested while they were attempting to sell 2.5-kilogram uranium extracted from ore. In November 2009, about 55 workers of the Kaiga nuclear power plant in Karnataka suffered radiation after drinking from a contaminated water cooler placed inside the complex. Investigations revealed that a contaminated substance, a liquid form of tritium which is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, was found in the drinking water cooler.
Negligence in handling radioactive material is not a rare phenomenon. Who can forget the Bhopal gas leak tragedy amid the negligent security mechanism of Union Carbide which took the lives of poor villagers back in the decade of 80s? According to the Indian Environmental Portal, a review of ‘unusual occurrences’ contained within the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s (AERB) annual reports revealed 16 cases of loss, theft or misplacement of radioactive sources in which radioactive material found its way into the environment since 2001.
It was dispassionately pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its security audit report that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AEGB), responsible for safety issues at 22 running nuclear plants, has yet to formulate a radiation safety policy. Innumerable lapses related to the flawed management, safety and security of nuclear facilities in India are enough to compile a book. The unreliability of India as a nuclear-armed state poses serious threats to Pakistan due to complex bilateral equations and volatile geopolitical dynamics.
What transpired almost two years back amid the mysterious firing of a Brahmos missile from Haryana in the territory of Pakistan is undeniable proof of Indian unreliability. The firing of a nuclear-capable missile in the territory of another nuclear rival state reflects how unpredictably India can endanger regional security. It was a tremendously cautious and responsible reaction of Pakistan which curtailed the nuclear escalation.
Credible geo-strategists acknowledge Kashmir as a nuclear flash point in South Asia. The irresponsible and highly provocative conduct of India compels Pakistan to walk persistently on a tightrope amid complex bilateral dynamics and regional security intricacies.
Ground facts prove that India, under the watch of an RSS-influenced extremist cult, has become more dangerously unsafe due to the uranium black market, converted strategically more unpredictably amid flawed missile security policy and emerged as the hub of non-transparent financial transactions. International watchdogs like IAEA, FATF, UNO and its sub-offices should strictly react to the blatant violations of international laws committed repeatedly by India. Involvement of nuclear-armed states like India in nuclear pilferage, money laundering, terror financing, transnational assassinations, disinformation networks, minority persecution and human rights violations merit concentrated countermeasures from the international community.
Surprisingly, unreliable India has now started shocking the allies as well with the destructive talent of espionage, target killings and diplomatic treachery.
The writer is a graduate of QAU, PhD scholar & freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected]