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Gandhians sad, and a trifle happy, about nuke tests

Eminent Gandhians, including Dr Sushila Nayyar, Mahatma Gandhi's personal physician, have decried India's nuclear tests, but said the sanctions may boost the citizen's desire to become self-reliant.

Dr Nayyar, talking to United News of India in Chandigarh, said a certain amount of ecological damage was inevitable whatever were the precautions taken. ''Nuclear tests are never safe and cannot do us any good though they might boost our ego,'' she said, adding such tests could ''never be an end unto themselves.''

Criticising the United State's attempts to bully India into signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, she said India was showing the right spirit by refusing to do so.

Another staunch Gandhian, Santosh Goindi, a life trustee of the Indore Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust, said considering the low self-esteem of the Indians, the tests would certainly boost their morale.

"The people desire to become self-reliant would be fired up (in the event of economic sanctions)," she said.

Reminding the people about Gandhi's saying that non-violence was for the brave, not the cowards, she hoped that India's nuclear capability would not be put to violent use. She said now that India has tested its capabilities, the tendency to look towards the West for assistance would subside.

''Now we can afford to take a strong stand before the world community,'' she said.

Dr S S Goindi, her brother, who has been associated with the local chapter of the Gandhi Smarak Bhavan, was of the opinion that the tests were in line with the present-day thinking. He said it was the will of the people which prevailed in a democracy -- the Union government was just giving in to their demand.

UNI

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