1948 Nehru launches peaceful nuclear programme in cooperation with the West, insists on India’s right for a nuclear weapons programme

1974 Indira Gandhi government conducts Pokharan I test on May 18, 1974; international sanctions slapped on India. Nuclear winter begins

1988 Rajiv Gandhi calls for universal disarmament; following a lukewarm international response, orders the assembly of nuclear weapons

1998 The Atal Behari Vajpayee government ends India’s nuclear ambiguity by conducting five nuclear tests on May 11 and 13, 1998; declares India to be a nuclear weapon power

2005-08 Manmohan Singh and President George W. Bush announce an agreement to end India’s nuclear isolation. Fighting off fierce opposition, Singh wins trust vote, gets IAEA approval and now NSG waiver. It’s over to Capitol Hill for ratification

Coalition of the mourning: Non-pro West, China, Left and BJP

• CPM’s Sitaram Yechury: Initial appearance is India has accepted in perpetuity that it will not conduct any nuclear tests and has accepted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

• BJP’s Yashwant Sinha: India has forever lost the right to conduct nuclear tests, walked into NPT trap. Historic shame for India.

• CPI’s D. Raja: Black Day for India, kills efforts to develop nuclear technology based on thorium.

• Washington-based Arms Control Association: Dangerous distinction between ‘good’ proliferators and ‘bad’ proliferators, wrecks NPT.

The lonely BJP dissenter

• Former National Security Adviser in the Vajpayee government Brajesh Mishra: Opens up nuclear commerce with other countries prohibited over the last few decades. Brings India and the US close, something the NDA government was trying to do. Of course, you have consequences (if you test)... those consequences are there even if you don’t have 123 agreement or cooperation with NSG countries.