NEW DELHI: Indian President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday conferred on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed El-Baradei the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for “his impassioned opposition to the use of nuclear energy for military purposes and his steadfast espousal of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, sustained over many years.” Indira Gandhi, who conducted the first Indian nuclear test on May 18, 1974, an underground implosion that was considered unique, was committed to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and was opposed to weaponization.
President Pratibha Patil gave away the Indira Gandhi Prize to ElBaradei at a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan attended by Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
In her address, President Pratibha Patil said, “Indira Gandhi spoke of creating a world free from the shadow of nuclear war.
