Admit India to nuke club: UK peers

His suggestions evoked support form Tory Peer, Lord Archer of Sandwell and Lord Jenkins who suggested that Britain should strive towards convening a fourth special session on disarmament at the UN General Assembly and that new Labour government should put into practice their election manifesto calling for total elimination ofnuclear weapons.

The peers though unanimous in their condmenation of India for carrying out nuclear tests voiced that the established nuclear powers themselves did not have a quot;clear consciencequot; as they had blocked India8217;s genuine efforts towards total nuclear disarmament.

The peers cautioned the British government in taking what they called quot;hasty actionsquot; on imposing trade and military sanctions and counselling that British trade and industry should be consulted before going ahead with any step in this direction.

Baroness Williams of Crosby drew the attention of the British government to India8217;s long record of constantly seeking peaceful outcomes. quot;Indeed many of us admired Indian government precisely because of its record of constantly trying to find peaceful answers to difficult questionsquot;.

The baroness said having conducted the tests, Britain should consider India8217;s record, given also she is the second largest country in the world and world8217;s largest democracy and to try to embrace India back tothe disarmament fold by getting resumption of negotiations on comprehensive disarmament.

A large number of peers who took part in the debate, wanted to know whether Britain would join the outcry in the West and follow the Americans and Japanese in imposing sanctions. Lord Moynihan, the Opposition Leader in the House, spoke against trade sanction on India saying it would be unwise and have damaging effect both on poor people in India and British businessmen.

Lord Desai, a peer of Indian origin, also counselled the government against doing anything untoward about imposing sanctions on India saying such an action quot;would reverse the good economic reform record India has been maintainingquot;.

An upcoming young writer of Indian origin, Sunil Khilnani whose book The Idea of India has just been published in paperback by Penguin has described West8217;s reaction to Indian nuclear tests as quot;pure humbugquot;.

In a forthright article in Daily Telegraph, the young writer said, quot;explosions are in fact thecreation of West8217;s own desultory attitudes towards the world8217;s largest democracyquot; adding that these attitudes had in fact pushed a quot;novice Indian government into taking a grave but legitimate step of entering the nuclear clubquot;.

Brazil breaks pactBrazil has broken off a nuclear energy cooperation accord it signed with India to protest the nuclear tests by New Delhi, according to the foreign ministry.

Brazil informed the Indian embassy here in a letter yesterday that it would no longer uphold the memorandum of understanding signed by the Atomic Energy Agencies of the two countries on cooperation to develop peaceful nuclear energy.

Foreign Ministry official Sebastiao Do Rego Barros said Brazil could reverse its decision if India backs down from its nuclear stance.

Kissinger backs India8217;s need for deterrentWASHINGTON: Former US Secrtary of State Henry Kissinger has voiced support for India8217;s need for a deterrent against China, saying major sanctions against India for the tests sheconducted 8220;are probably a mistake.8221; He also warned against the dangers of a long period of confrontation between India and the US.

8220;I don8217;t believe China has any intention of attacking India with nuclear weapons, but the conventional wisdom has been that deterrents between countries of that size works. If these weapons are a threat to anybody, I believe it is not primarily to China. It is more to neighbours that do not have means of retaliation,8221; Kissinger told CNN-TV recently.