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India formally declares herself a nuclear weapons state

Rajesh Ramachandran in New Delhi

India formally declared herself a nuclear weapons power today.

The prime minister's spokesman said the country can make a nuclear weapon any day.

Pramod Mahajan, the prime minister's political advisor, made it very clear that unlike the 1974 nuclear test, the latest one was a declaration of the country's status as a nuclear weapon state.

Earlier, at a Bharatiya Janata Party workers meeting, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the country would use nuclear weapons if required.

But Mahajan asserted that the PM did not use the term nuclear bomb. "In his speech the PM said nuclear power should be used for peaceful purposes and that we are here not to attack anyone. We have done this for self-defence. We are not war-mongers, and want the best of relations with everyone," he said

It was while clarifying the prime minister's statement that Mahajan stated that the country was now a nuclear weapon power.

When asked whether he meant that the country was now a declared nuclear weapons power, Mahajan said the nuclear tests were not carried out for academic purposes and that the intention was evident.

It is for the first time that the government has used the phrase 'nuclear weapon power'.

The establishment was very careful till this evening to call the country a nuclear weapon 'capable' state than a nuclear weapon state. In fact, while answering queries on the Rediff Chat on Thursday, K C Pant, chairman of the task force appointed to constitute the National Security Council, took care to refer to the country's status as a nuclear weapon 'capable' state.

At his press meet, Mahajan talked tough, asking questions instead of answering the foreign media representatives's queries: "Why is the US a nuclear state? Why is there nuclear apartheid in the world? Why should India be denied the right to exercise its option? You created an exclusive club of nuclear haves. This divide between nuclear haves and have-nots is not acceptable."

When asked whether the declaration would cause further stringent reaction from the West, Mahajan said any amount of sanctions will not deter the country from its chosen path. When asked what the chosen path was, he asserted, "We have already demonstrated our chosen path."

The declaration, though welcomed by many analysts, had a few sceptics. Former prime minister I K Gujral told Rediff On The NeT that he wouldn't like to rush to conclusions on the government's statement: "I need time to study it. I would react only after a day."

Professor G B Deshpande, dean of the school of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, called it a momentous decision. "I welcome it. It is a logical step forward," remarked Dr K Subrahmanyam, former director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

But he added that the loudest verbal declaration cannot drown out the first three explosions.

"Pakistan has said it has weapons, China has it, South Korea and New Zealand have bilateral ties with the US, wherein they have got the assurance of a nuclear deterrent from the US. All the white countries have the weapon. The whole of the Western hemisphere has it. What is the point in India standing alone?" asks Dr Subrahmanyam.

He feels the country has only now joined the world mainstream, something which India has tried to fight so far.

"We have now given up the effort of fighting the world and joined them now. But it will take some time for them to understand that we are stepping into a power vacuum created by Russia and China in the north and Japan in the east. Now India ends the balance of power in this region," explains Dr Subrahmanyam.

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