Between the 1960s and the 1980s, the Cold War between the US and the Soviets raged. The nuclear threat was omnipresent. The competing systems were so highly developed in technological terms that if the US launched a missile with a warhead, the USSR satellites capable of informing the Kremlin of the event within 3 seconds. In less than 45 seconds, the Soviets would also launch their counter-missile.

Given that perspective, let's see how such a scenario involving India and Pakistan would go.

Say the Pakistan Army has decided to launch the nuke towards India. They don't need any permission from their Government, so they go ahead, and as Nike says, just do it.

Indian technology is highly advanced, and so, in less than 7 to 8 seconds, the Indian army comes to know of the planned attack and decides to launch a more destructive missile, but for that purpose it requires the permission of the Government of India. They submit their request to Indian President.

The President forwards the note to the Cabinet. Now, the Prime Minister calls an emergency Lok Sabha session after having the discussed the matter with his Cabinet colleagues, the party's highest decision-making body and the chiefs of the frontal organisation, while pausing to ask the chaprasi what he thought about it. The critical session starts after a hiatus of three days. When the Lok Sabha meets, it is adjourned indefinitely after several walkouts, dharnas and assorted dramabaazi by the Opposition on other significant issues like hiking their own salaries or their quotas for telephone or gas connections. But the President, however, presses for a quick decision.

By the way, keeping you posted on developments on the other side, the Paki missile fails to take off due to unknown reasons. But, the attempt is still on.

Meanwhile, the party ruling the country is reduced to minority because another, which is giving it outside support, withdraws the backing of all of its six MPs. Therefore, now the PM's priority has changed, he needs to ensure a majority in the Lower House.

The President asks the PM to prove his majority with a week. Meanwhile, an External Affairs spokesman requests Pak for bilateral talks, at the Foreign Secretary and External Affairs Minister levels.

The week after, the ruling party can't procure the vote of confidence and hence, a caretaker Government takes over. Now, the acting PM decides to......

But….wait..wait. The Election Commision says that a caretaker Government can't take such a decision because elections are nigh. Then, acting upon a Pil filed by the chaprasi, now a special advisor to the Defence Minister, the Supreme Court comes to the rescue of the PM, and says that he is authorised to take the decision.

Oh wait, time for a flashback, to about 24 hours earlier. One of the Pak missiles was actually successfully

launched. However, it landed 367 miles away from the target. The missile fell on a Government building at 11:00 a.m. But, since no employee had reached office till that time, there were no casualties barring a single chaprasi, the cousin of the Advisor to the Defence Minister, who had recently been appointed in a special quota and since he was new to his job, was still no familiar with what was expected practice like when Government servants should come to work. Oh yes, the warhead had fizzled out after having detached itself from the missile somewhere over the Arabian Sea. Pakistan is now desperately shopping for better technology, from sellers like the US, China, North Korea, anyone.

Meanwhile, back home, the Government finally decides to launch an Indian missile. That decision was arrived at after a series of all-party meetings, the last of which attained unanimity. It's been three months since the Army had sought permission.

But this time, some anti-nukes activists come out on to the roads protesting against the decision. Human chains are formed in Calcutta, New Delhi and even Jhumritallaiyya for peace. Mass mail is sent to Indians everywhere, saying ``Please forward it to as many of your countrymen as possible''.

On the Paki side, sometimes the missile fails to take-off, at other times the payload gets detached during flight, some missiles deviate from the target due to technical failures or high-velocity wind But the Pakis keep trying.

Finally, the Paki scientists open one of the pre-packaged US toolkits, bought at a bargain arms bazaar, for quickly putting together an ``Instant Nuke.'' However, in their hurry, since they've heard that the Indian nuclear scientists have finally confirmed their railway reservations to reach the launch site, they do not examine the assembling instructions carefully. In fact, they just blindly follow the words in the manual with the result that the original target is mistakenly retained.

The missile is launched and there are celebrations galore as the Pakis realise that the missile has worked perfectly - the warhead is intact, its flight, direction and trajectory unflawed. However, someone from among the technicians tracking its flight path is heard clearly his voice. He finally informs the gathered dignitaries including the Paki President, PM, the Cabinet, Army chief, ISI chief, et al, that there's been a ``little mistake.'' ``Mistake, what mistake?'' they ask in unison. ``Well,'' he replies, ``the missile seems to be headed for Beijing.''

Meanwhile, the Indian nuclear scientists have reached their destination and are ready to launch the missile. However, the missile has to be hastily postponed when it is discovered that the Prime Minister has been unable to make it since he is more pre-occupied with inner-party squabbles.

With a contribution from Sunit Katkar, a cool dude. Check out his web presence at
http://www.vidyut.com/sunit,
http://www.vidyut.com/sunit/JavaPage.html,
http://www.vidyut.com/sunit/PalmPage.html