Natwar’s N-speak baffles New Delhi

Singh, in the interview, sought to shift the entire blame for events leading up to the 1998 Shakti series of tests on the NDA Government and its nuclear stand-off with Pakistan, reported PTI from Seoul.

In doing so, he not only seemed to be going against his own government’s stated stand, but also appeared to be denying the role that various Congress leaders had played in India’s nuclear journey.

After appearing to blame the NDA Government on a visit to Seoul, Singh reportedly told the newspaper: ‘‘But regret would be futile…you can’t put it back in the tube, it’s out.’’

Even the highest levels of government were taken aback at the Foreign Minister’s views on the sensitive nuclear issue.‘‘What can I say…it is his personal view,’’ said a senior official.

While no official was willing to come on record, authoritative sources said that Singh’s statement contradicts Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s stand that India would maintain a ‘‘minimum credible nuclear deterrent.’’

Sources said Natwar Singh’s view could renew the pressure on India on this vital issue.

Observers involved in India’s nuclear programme appeared amused by the Foreign Minister’s statement, saying that it contradicted the stand taken by Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister in March 1989. It was then that Gandhi had given the security establishment the green signal to pursue a nuclear weapons programme.

Rajiv Gandhi’s move came after he was convinced that China was supplying nuclear technology to Pakistan. Natwar Singh was also a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government at that time.

Even before that, it was Indira Gandhi’s regime that conducted the first peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974. Later in 1982-83, Indira Gandhi again gave a green signal for another round of nuclear tests and then Defence Minister R Venkataraman even surveyed the nuclear shafts before the tests were called off. The Congress connection continued through December 1995 as Narasimha Rao, then Prime Minister, decided to conduct a nuclear test but called it off at the last moment apparently due to US pressure.

Ultimately Pokhran II was conducted on May 11-13, 1998 by the NDA government which, in a letter to then US President Bill Clinton, cited China as the main reason for going nuclear.

Those involved with Vajpayee’s 1998 nuclear decision were peeved at Singh’s remarks particularly in the context of Indo-Pakistan nuclear stand-off. According to them, the NDA logically followed the direction taken by previous regimes, which had stopped short of taking the final step.

The External Affairs Minister had recently baffled Parliament on another count by asserting that India would not become a member of the UN Security Council without veto powers. Singh clearly jumped the gun as India has not even been formally offered a seat in the UNSC.