ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Gujral calls for early normalisation of situation

Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral has written to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asking him not to project the nuclear tests as a victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party and warning him against celebrating. ''You will only push the outside world to think of (India) as a chauvinist country,'' he wrote.

Revealing details of his confidential letter sent on Wednesday, Gujral called upon the government to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, adding, ''If this is done it will help the nuclear powers and other major economic powers to adopt a moderate approach regarding the threatened sanctions.''

Gujral also cautioned Vajpayee that ''delay would, correspondingly, lay the basis for more hardened and negative approaches emanating from quarters which have the potential to harm our national interests.''

Speaking in detail about India's nuclear weapons programme, the former prime minister revealed that every government from Narasimha Rao's to Vajpayee's had ''this file on our table all the time.

''One had to judge how necessary it is and when it is necessary to have a test. Timing is a matter of judgement. There is no text book for it.''

Revealing his discussions with Bill Clinton last year, Gujral said he had asked the American president to put himself in the shoes of the Indian prime minister and then consider the situation.

In reply, Clinton had said, ''I understand.''

Claiming ''it is far more dangerous to have an untested weapon and much better that we should have a tested weapon,'' Gujral explained that if Pakistan now carried out a test that would mean ''both sides have a deterrent (and) wars are out. So then you talk.''

Gujral also revealed that he had personally spoken to several foreign ambassadors in India, including the Australian high commissioner, and warned them against pushing India into ''ultra radicalism.''

''Sanctions and efforts to isolate us will give birth to ultra radicalism which is not in the interest of anybody,'' he told them.

Quoting from his confidential letter to Vajpayee, Gujral said: ''It would be advantageous to take a timely view in regard to our revised position on the CTBT and let it be known. If this is done it would help the nuclear weapon powers and other major economic powers to adopt a moderate approach in regard to the threatened sanctions. In brief, we have to provide a suitable opening to Washington, Bonn, Tokyo and others to maintain their expected postures and responses without any tangible harm being done to our national and economic interests, especially the latter, in the short term.

''Our ability to clear the air in regard to the CTBT and, soon enough, in regard to FMCT, would assist the early normalisation of the situation. This would enable us to proceed apace without adversely affecting economic development programmes. Delay in making our policy and position would, correspondingly, lay the basis for a more hardened and negative approaches emanating from quarters which have the potential to harm our national interests.''

In an interview Gujral said he supported the prime minister's position to discuss the CTBT but said that India's concerns should be ''not a condition but our effort to persuade'' other signatories. Gujral appeared to suggest that this could happen after signing the treaty rather than before.

''The CTBT may no more be discriminatory against us but as a world power we have to ensure it is a just treaty,'' he said.

Tell us what you think of this report