No CTBT for India: Arundhati

MUMBAI, July 27: India should never sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT even if the United States and other Western countries r...

MUMBAI, July 27: India should never sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT even if the United States and other Western countries resort to more punitive actions said former Indian representative to the United Nations Arundhati Ghose today.

Speaking at a function organized by the Association of Youth for Better India AYBI at St Xavier8217;s College, Ghose said the CTBT, in its present form, is a biased scripture and gives exclusive privileges to the nuclear weapon states. 8220;India should never sign the treaty in its own interest,8221; she said.

On putting across India8217;s point of view she said, 8220;This is what I tried to do two years ago, when the government deputed me to explain the country8217;s position before the international community.8221; Ghose was the country8217;s chief negotiator at the CTBT conference in Geneva two years ago. 8220;Our position is logical and inevitable. Our nuclear option is not for coercion or acquisition of territories but to provide a credible deterrent,8221; she said adding, 8220;Nuclearweapons cannot make us a great nation, but it is certainly necessary for strengthening our security.8221;

However, she dismissed the views that the May nuclear tests had political motive. 8220;The timing or decision to test is immaterial now. The shafts and other preparations were on for a long time and so the tests were to follow some day or other. Maybe, it8217;s not fair for the BJP government to take the entire credit since all the previous governments were involved and were in the know,8221; she said. Ghose came down heavily on the verification regime proposed in the CTBT. 8220;It allows access to sensitive installations and unnecessary intrusion into the country8217;s nuclear privacy.8221;

Ghose said that there is a great deal of confusion among people about what8217;s going on in the government and scientific circles. She stressed the need of having credible nuclear deterrent. 8220;Our8217;s is not Pakistan-specific or China-specific action but would be a deterrent to anyone who resorts to nuclear blackmail,8221; and recollected howthe US sailed its nuclear-armed USS Enterprise into the Bay of Bengal during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

8220;If we had a credible deterrent that time, the US would not have thought of indulging in such an exercise.8221;

She said that India has always had an open mind on all issues. 8220;It8217;s we who promoted the idea of test ban that resulted in the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963.

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India was in the forefront in proposing the non-proliferation treaty NPT and since the US and USSR re-drafted it to serve their interests, we had no option but to pull out of the treaty,8221; she stated.