India, Dec. 5 -- This is essentially an anecdotal piece. And yet not wholly so. Seventy years ago is a long time ago, and what happened at this very time in November and December of 1955 would seem today like a self-indulgent rumination about the past. But the thing that happened then is happening today in a startlingly similar way, making this recollection go beyond the genre of old folks' tales. And that "thing" is the "N thing" - nuclear bombs. Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India under the canopy of nuclear risk-taking is what takes this column beyond the pyol of stories. In 1954, the US had carried out horrendously powerful tests of nuclear weapons on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, one of which was described as being "about 1,000 times more powerful than either of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki". An indignant C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), from his obscure corner in Madras, shot off a letter to The New York Times that read, "Let each not wait for the other, but unilaterally. regain the Paradise we had held and which we lost in August, 1945". On January 10, 1955, the Congress met at Avadi, near Madras, for its annual session. Rajaji, who had been eased out of the office of chief minister of Madras only a few months earlier, was invited - doubtless at Prime Minister (PM) Jawaharlal Nehru's instance, as such was the grace of those times - to second a resolution on nuclear disarmament. The resolution called for "the total prohibition of the manufacture and use of. weapons of mass destruction". In June 1955, Nehru toured the Soviet Union amid great enthusiasm, winning admiration at home. Did Nehru discuss the nuclear threat to world peace with his hosts? One can be sure he did because that subject was on the world's urgent agenda. In July, that year, Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell with nine other leading scientists issued a manifesto calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons, a step Nehru welcomed. He offered, somewhat tentatively, to host in India a conference on the subject. The conference, for other reasons, was held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, commencing the movement and organisation by that name. Very fittingly, Nehru invited Nikolai Bulganin, the then Soviet PM, and Nikita Khrushchev, the all-powerful secretary of the USSR's Communist Party to tour India. They received a resounding welcome. But nothing goes quite exactly as planned. While in Bengaluru (then Bangalore), on November 26, 1955, Khrushchev made a startling announcement. He said that on the previous day, his country had exploded a nuclear bomb that produced the effect of "one million tonnes of TNT". He said this test explosion was "to influence the nerves of those who wish to unleash a new war". A certain sequel was played out in Madras's Raj Bhavan where Rajaji conferred with the two visitors. The septuagenarian came straight to what was troubling him. "Will the Soviet Union," he asked Bulganin, "dismantle nuclear weapons unilaterally?" The answer was as emphatic as it was prompt: "No." Rajaji persisted. "Will it agree to a joint renunciation under supervision with the USA?" Bulganin answered, "Yes". In 1957, the Soviet Union conducted a series of nuclear tests followed by 38 more in 1958. On March 27 that year, Rajaji, from the same obscure corner, picked up his pen to write to the Soviet Union's now obvious numero uno, Khrushchev who had become PM himself. "Dear Mr Khrushchev," the letter began, "Deterrence is an absolute unreality like a figure in the clouds . As for arming for security, it is as great a fallacy. Both sides trying, each to be securely stronger than the other, is utter reductio ad absurdum". Sending the letter through the Soviet Consul in Madras, he requested that it be sent "by air, of course, if you will oblige". The Consul seems to have done better, presumably sending the text telegraphically. Five days later, by the dynamics of the nuclear syndrome, the Soviet Union, which had finished its planned series of tests, announced a unilateral ceasefire. On the very next day, April 1, G Kocharyants, the editor-in-chief of Soviet Land sent Rajaji a letter from his New Delhi office, that said: "Recognising the importance of the suggestion, emanating as it did, from a person of your eminence and sagacity, Mr Khrushchev gave careful thought to it, and while appreciating his appreciation, indicated in his reply the consideration which hindered its translation into action. He, however, added that the Soviet Union would like to be in a position to comply with your wish". Kocharyants was no ordinary Soviet presence in New Delhi. At a time when both the US and Russia are speaking openly of giving up on all arms control and on CTBT-governed codes on nuclear testing, there can be no greater crown on President Putin's visit than an announcement from Indian soil by the visiting dignitary that Russia will stay its option of resuming nuclear tests subject to a reciprocal announcement by US President Donald Trump. Khrushchev's Moscow did not misunderstand being advised by an Indian civilian in the matter. Putin's Moscow can appreciate an initiative coming from India's PM. Moscow must hear India's voice seeking to secure the world against the burgeoning nuclear peril....