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India should not sign CTBT in its present form, says Arundhati Ghose

Former Indian representative to the United Nations Arundhati Ghose says the country should not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in its present form and instead live through the economic crisis arising out of the international sanctions.

In an interview to UNI in Calcutta, Ghose, who became the focus of the media at the world forum during India's strong opposition to the signing of the treaty, said the question of giving in to international pressure and signing the CTBT could not arise unless the West shed its nuclear "hypocrisy". ''The CTBT is an utterly discriminatory treaty as the clauses of the same empower the International Monitoring System to inspect all tests of above one kiloton by a country, which India can never accept,'' she said.

Observing that the situation has not changed even after India's successful nuclear tests this week, Ghose said there was no reason why the country should sign the treaty which only bars any new state from acquiring nuclear weapons but does not prevent the five nuclear power countries from upgrading their nuclear arsenal.

Ghose felt her country could never accept a situation where any United Nations team would, on suspicion, be empowered to conduct inspections on its research laboratories as per the conditions of the treaty. ''The CTBT was a flawed treaty when India was being pressurised to sign it, and it remains flawed'', she noted.

If the country was still committed to the elimination of nuclear weapon, then signing the CTBT did not serve any purpose as the treaty failed to address the issue of banning all kinds of nuclear weapons, she added.

Ghose felt that bringing an amendment to the CTBT was not possible as in that case, the entire treaty has to be re-negotiated. ''The nuclear hypocrisy of the West is best exposed by the US which conducted two sub-critical tests only two months ago."

On the diplomatic field, the recently-retired bureaucrat felt that at an international forum like the UN, India's stand should be that the tests by the country were a logical outcome of its persistent stance on the CTBT. ''The entire exercise is all about our security on which we can never compromise,'' she maintained.

Regarding the threat of Pakistan conducting similar tests soon, the former diplomat said the reasons for the test by India was to get data and Pakistan, ''it seems, does not have the technologists to get the same."

''Whatever Pakistan does with their imported technology has to be dealt with at any cost, for we cannot go back on our policies,'' she said.

UNI

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