INDIA'S NUCLEAR TESTS EXPOSE NUCLEAR DUPLICITY/HYPOCRISY OF THE NUCLEAR-CLUB
By S.P. Attri (USA)

1. For several days in a row now, a torrent of news communique has been blasting the air waves of the world that India conducted underground nuclear tests. Resulting reactions, which are of varied shades and hues, have started to pour in and they are generally characteristic of the source of the commentator. That there was more than substantial justification for these tests cannot be a point in dispute when it is realized what kind of neighborhood India has, with two belligerant and bellicose neighbors, both nuclear and missile-armed and both having committed open and active aggression and wars of conquest against India & both of whom, at this time, continue to put on view, hostile and belligerant behaviour toward India. Simply put, India finds itself ringed by bristling belligerant missiles and nuclear warheads.

2. One of the two neighbors, the nuclear-armed China, committed armed aggression against India in 1962 and to this date, continues to illegally occupy large tracts of Indian territory in the Himalayas and continues to display hostile manifestations. Further, the border problem with China remains unresolved due to the intransigence and expansionist mentality of the Chinese. The other antagonistic country, the overtly nuclear and missile-armed Pakistan has carried out three wars of aggression against India and for over a decade, has been conducting proxy wars, from across the border, into several areas of India especially Panjab and Kashmir. In its aggressive pursuits, Pakistan has been receiving a goodly amount of material help and collaboration from the Chinese, including but not limited to nuclear and missile technology. It needs to be unmistakably understood that the on-going military modernisation program of China has a technological spin-off effect on Pakistan. A ballistic missile like the Ghauri, which is the product of this overt and malevolent collaboration, has tremendous political and psychological effect besides its military potential. Its nuclear component cannot be ignored either.

3. Reports have been steadily coming in that a massive electronic surveillance system is being set up by the Chinese on the Coco islands, near the Andaman and Nicobar islands of India. These islands are Burmese territory but China is taking them on loan from the Burmese. With the already massive establishment of electronic surveillance that the Chinese have installed there, the Chinese are now monitoring and measuring everything in India and rumors are afloat that the Chinese intend to convert this surveillance establishment into a major naval base, which would directly threaten India.

4. Because of the build up of these threat elements, the security situation has been degenerating and deteriorating steadily and an urgent Security and Threat Review by India could not be deferred any more. During the Security Review, the Defense Review Council of India began to show extremely serious security concerns because of so many countries around India, with nuclear- capable missiles and encircling arsenal of hostile armaments, missiles, and warheads specifically aimed and targeted at India. The Defense Review Council conveyed its grave concerns to the Prime Minister along with recommended steps to develop countermeasure deterrents.

5. India had exploded a nuclear device in 1974 but since that time has practised a self-imposed moratorium on testing on Moral Grounds, in the pious hope of achieving nuclear weapons total elimination from the world, on the basis of justice and evenhandedness. It is because of the absence of justice that India rejects the present Non-Proliferation (NPT) treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) because of their Discriminatory Basis and has instead desired a totally Non-Discriminatory Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty & Total Elimination and Destruction of all nuclear weapons from the world. India opposes the CTBT treaty as presently drafted, which gives some countries unfair rights, such as the God-given right of some countries to be nuclear powers ( and depriving others of such rights) and holding a veto over everyone else. Inspite of such exemplifications of blatant injustices, India has exercised its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing for 24 years, longer than any other nuclear-capable nation. But grave threats and needs of adequate defense could not be ignored or deferred any longer.

6. After failing, through 24 years of relentless but fruitless efforts to get the nuclear-club of nuclear-have nations, to eliminate the nuclear weapons of mass destruction (WMD), India reluctantly carried out its underground nuclear tests on 11 May 98 and on 13 May 98. Like the previous detonation of 1974, these new tests of 1998, were well-contained and there was no release of radioactivity into the atmosphere. These new tests of 1998 put India's cards on the table and establish India as a full-fledged nuclear and thermo-nuclear capable weaponized state. The number of tests conducted by India has been deliberately kept down but provide an essential database for nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapon design of various yields, applications, and delivery systems. Computer Simulations are expected to follow which will be supplemented by sub-critical experiments, if needed.

7. After these nuclear tests, it makes no sense at all not to induct nuclear weapons. Obvious Conclusion: Go all the way, it is too late to turn back, it is now or never. The Hindu Worm has turned and it will not tolerate hypocrisy much longer. You can talk of peace only when you can thwart any attack on your country from any source and from any direction. Simply stated, India needs to be a nuclear power.

In this context, the ideology of Hindutva is gaining more and more popularity now. Why? Because everything else that has been tried before in India for the last 50 years has failed to produce the desired results. Now people are coming in droves to join the ranks of Hindutva despite the malicious propaganda of falsehood-manufacturers who continue to run down Hinduism as superstitious, backward, and regressive religion.

8. It needs to be clearly understood that the nuclear-club of "Five Nuclear-Have Nations" has become a Global Bully, dominating every global forum, unilaterally writing rules of international and internal behavior & toppling and installing regimes at will. No body can challenge their writ because they are the nuclear powers and they are in charge of global agencies. Instead of promoting justice and evenhandedness, they want to hang on to their privileges while disarming the rest of the world. NPT regime is in their best interest and a Universal Ban On Nuclear Weapons is their Worst Nightmare.

9. Regarding Pakistan: The stated policy of the US (and of West, in general) is to treat both India and Pakistan equally. What this amounts to is to equate a nation of one billion people with a nation of 130 million people. What nonsense? Since 1950, the US has time and again, shown that it is wedded deeply to Pakistan or else Pakistan would not have survived this long. To keep Pakistain militarily equal to India, the US has endeavored to arm Pakistan. By doing this, the US has done justice neither to India (a democracy) nor to itself ( another democracy). Instead and in fact, we see a conniving policy of the West of active appeasement of Pakistan and its Islamic fundamentalism in order to destabilize India. West has been using Pakistan for extortion and political blackmail against India. West does not want to see the Pakistani Nuclear Bomb (the Islamic Bomb) but it wants to use the Islamic Pakistan and its Islamic Fundamentalism to cut India to size. So far the West has succeeded in doing just that. Pakistan and Kashmir are startling embodiments of blackmail and extortion against India. So much so that inspite of being the largest democracy in the world, India cannot even win a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

10. India has found out that when it did not declare its nuclear capability, the world ignored it completely. We can understand why India wanted a "nuclear deterrent" and we denounce the US for contemplating sanctions against India. It is unfortunate that India was forced to join the "Mad Race" but understand the need for it. We live in a world dominated by the West. The US was responsible for introducing nuclear weapons to the world and now wants to be the only power with such weapons.

11. From the above we can only deduce that in order to become a superpower, India has to have nuclear weapons. The nuclear weaponization of India is now a reality, no longer a fantasy whether the world accepts it or not. The country of India has been taken over by nuclear euphoria and it is seriously doubtful if the defense establishement of India would back away now from deterrent capability. Lessons learned after 1974 are pretty hard to forget. Look at what has been happening to Indians for 50 years. We have a belligerant Pakistan that first captured one half of a piece of territory in India, and it persists in encouraging terrorism. For reasons of it own, China helps Pakistan build missiles and nukes, while declaring at the same time that it "wants peace."

We, the "nice guys", the "Gandhis" are being trod upon. But not any more! It is now India's destiny to become a Super-Power and come to think of it, that is the best thing that can happen as far as the US is concerned. If USA plays its cards right, a nuclear and friendly India is far better for the US than an expansionist China. India now counterbalances China, which was upto now the only nuclear power in Asia. Not any longer!

12. China seems to be a good black-mailer. Despite its atrocious and unexcusable human rights record and despite its bully nature, it is not under any strict sanction from the US. The Greedy USA and the Western powers need India just as bad, if not more, than China. They only speak the language of money. India has the largest middle class in the world, it is larger than China's middle class. It behoves the US and the West to stop their bickering and non-stop condemnation of India's tests and instead see the reasons behind the actions that India took. There should no doubt in any body's mind that USA realizes pretty well that if they push India into a corner, then India will just blast its way out. It is because of this realization that we see all that praise of India being a great nation, coming out of Clinton's mouth concurrently with his nuclear test criticism of India. Besides, there are lots of powerful US congressmen who do not agree with the US sanctions. Former Secretary Of State, Henry Kissinger, stated on CNN, that sanctions are not a good idea, they are only symbolic to make a point, but they should not be prolonged. Nobel-peace prize winner and God-King of the Tibetans, Dalai Lama, said that Developed Countries have no right to tell the Developing Countries what weapons they should have. Newt Gingrich, the Speaker Of The US House Of Representatives, supports India and says that Clinton has gone completely overboard in his criticism and policy towards India. Newt wants US treatment of China & India to be on par, and wants sanctions being imposed on China while they are being imposed on India. He expresses amazement at the situation where a dictatorial China was fine but a democratic India was bad.

France and Russia are not keen on sanctions at all. Britain is ambiguous. On 21 May 98, the Non-Aligned Nations (NAM) slammed the nuclear weapon states for hindering the process of nuclear-free world and declared that peace & security was essential for the development of member states. In a significant approval of India's nuclear policy, the NAM foreign ministers severely criticized the big powers for maintaining monopoly over nuclear weapons and described their stand as highly discriminatory.

13. Nine US Banks have submitted a Comprehensive White Paper on " Interpretation" on Sanctions to the US Treasury. The White Paper calls for a lenient interpretation of the Sanctions. Several US Banks, notably Citibank and Bank Of New York, are extending credit to Indian Banks, despite the imposition of US sanctions. The European Banks have indicated to the Indian Banks that they are ready to move in if the US banks fail to provide credit to the Indians.

14. Regarding Pakistan: Pakistan should treat Indian tests as a warning and IMMEDIATELY stop playing with Kashmir. Enough is enough and India could quickly declare war on its shameful neighbor and show it the place where it belongs. It is hoped that Pakistan remembers the defeat of 1971. A credible action of proxy wars across the states of Rajasthan & Gujerat could drown Pakistan into fatal consequences. India's ability to have a credible nuclear deterrent capability is always useful in such situations.

How sophisticated is India's nuke technology? Answer: Sophisticated enough to get rid of Pakistan for good!

Pakistan, if it has any nukes at all and uses it against India, would be immediately annihilated.

It is about time for Pakistan to realize, while there is time, that India has the capability to counter and eliminate their terrorism in Kashmir once and for all. In this connection, the Indian government has given its warning to Pakistan that they will not accept "the on-going proxy war launched by Islamabad against India in Kashmir." Indian Parliamentary Minister, Madan Lal Khurana says," We have tolerated Pakistan's mischief for 50 years. Enough is enough. We cannot tolerate it any further."

15. To Sum Up: For decades, India has maintained an ambiguous nuclear stand. India finally stopped prevaricating and preaching high morality on nuclear issues, and demonstrated its capability to explode a range of necessary explosive devices, including a low-yield bomb & a high yield thermo-nuclear device on 11 May 98. Two more sub-kiloton tests followed on 13 May 98. These tests will provide the Indian scientists with enough raw data to further improve the design of detonating mechanisms and study the behavior of nuclear matter. Much more than that, however, reaction of the Nuclear-Haves to India's nuclear tests have denuded the Nuclear Hypocrisy of the Nuclear-Club. The reaction of the Big Five, US, Britain, France, Russia, & China reveals nothing but their Basic Duplicity and Hypocrisy. It is like their saying," Do as we say, not as we do."

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