End this secrecy about India's nuclear programme

India's nuclear establishment has a problem. It is a problem of credibility. And it is a problem of its own making. No one questions the brilliance or dedication of the scientists running India's nuclear programme. No one can forget how they manfully kept both the peaceful and the military components of the programme going through several decades of international nuclear isolation.

Yet, now, when the sanctions have been lifted, India has been accepted as a nuclear power, and the government has begun to move full steam ahead to generate power from the atom to meet growing energy needs, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India are running into a rising wall of public opposition.

To be sure, the near-disaster at Fukushima, Japan, earlier this year has had a major role to play in turning people against nuclear energy. But the biggest share of the blame must lie at the doorstep of the DAE and the NPCIL. The scientists running these organisations may be the best in the business, but they are novices when it comes to the art of communication. And that is putting it mildly.

For too long has the country's nuclear establishment functioned behind a curtain of secrecy. In the bad old days, when the world looked upon India with suspicion, the curtain had its uses. Today, when fundamental questions are being raised about the usefulness and safety of nuclear energy, to continue to hide behind the curtain smacks of stupidity and lack of self-confidence. What's worse, this behaviour is being seen as a sign of arrogance, not the best trait when you are trying to win friends and influence people.

Questions are bound to be raised about any public programme; a sensible government tries to answer those questions in such a way that at least the majority is persuaded. Ducking questions, as DAE chairman Srikumar Banerjee and his predecessor Anil Kakodkar did at Tuesday's face-off over Jaitapur in Mumbai, can only queer the pitch further.

Hopefully, the scientists will see the error of their ways quickly. After all, they are among India's brightest. And the country needs all the energy it can generate.