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N-tests were meant to contain BJP coalition's rift, not external threat, says Gowda

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda today said the Bharatiya Janata Party government's decision to conduct the nuclear tests had more to do with containing internal dissension in the ruling coalition than security considerations.

Addressing a news conference in New Delhi, Deve Gowda said the people of India were wise enough to understand that the rumblings in the coalition government had ceased after the nuclear tests. Moreover, the security environment in the neighbourhood had not changed after A B Vajpayee took over from I K Gujral, thus warranting the tests.

Deve Gowda, who released copies of a letter he wrote to the prime minister, said the government should make public the strategy formulated to tide over the fallout of the tests, including the economic sanctions from Western countries.

He accused the government of taking the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leadership into confidence but keeping the national opposition in the dark on an issue of national importance. Does it mean that they are the only patriots, he asked.

Deve Gowda said the same scientists had attempted to prevail on him when he was the prime minister to undertake the nuclear tests, but he turned it down on the ground that the time was not ripe and that the country was facing many problems on the economic front. The United Front government aimed at solving immediate economic and political problems on a priority basis.

"I declined to give clearance for demonstrating India's nuclear capability not because of the likely adverse reaction from the international community but because of my concern for improving the economic situation in the country."

'We are not against the bomb but feel that amelioration of the living conditions of 300 million people living below the poverty line was an important task. If the bomb is an answer to our country's problem, let us make bigger bombs," Deve Gowda said.

He recalled that the crucial decision not to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was taken in consultation with leaders of Opposition parties. "Had we succumbed to pressures and and taken a decision to sign the CTBT unilaterally, could they have conducted the test now?"

Deve Gowda said while Vajpayee had written to US President Bill Clinton citing border problems with China as one of the reasons which forced India to go in for nuclear tests, the UF government had taken various steps to improve relations with that country. The Chinese president came to Delhi and signed a comprehensive treaty on confidence building measures on the line of control.

The UF government took several steps to improve relations with all neighbours including China and Pakistan. The long pending river water treaty with Bangladesh was resolved during his regime. But the only political party which opposed the treaty with Bangladesh was the BJP. This reaction revealed the mindset of that party, Deve Gowda said.

He pointed out that the scientists did not produce the nuclear device in just sixty days -- the period the BJP government has been in office.

"The whole thing is the result of cumulative efforts made by hundreds of scientists for the last 40 years. Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation and Indira Gandhi harvested the fruits of past labour in 1974. In subsequent years, the scientists had approached two previous governments to continue the tests, once in 1995 and then in 1997."

He said the P V Narasimha Rao government was asked to take a decision on conducting fresh nuclear tests, but he wisely did not agree to the proposal.

UNI

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