Seize the day

Now that the self-congratulatory euphoria occasioned by the nuclear tests has begun to fade, the government must immediately get down to the...

Now that the self-congratulatory euphoria occasioned by the nuclear tests has begun to fade, the government must immediately get down to the job of dealing with the fallout. While it has the attention of the world, it must forcefully put across its point of view on non-proliferation. The arms control debate has always been of a moral rather than legalistic nature.

Until a couple of days ago, India consistently held the high moral ground in spite of its refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTBT.

Though its unwillingness to dutifully sign on the dotted line irked the nuclear powers who proposed the treaty, they had to concede that India had a principled stand. After the nuclear tests, however, the situation is going to change, and swiftly. It would be a natural reflex for the western powers, who have so far had to deal only with simplistic situations of the despot pitted against democracy, to brand India as a rogue state.

However, the tests have also raised India to the level where it canlook upon these nations as its peers, and to see that its point of view gets a decent hearing. Now, at this turning point, the government must act with dispatch to capitalise on the event, or lose the initiative forever. It can look back on two precedents China and France ran nuclear tests just before they signed the CTBT. But the first step taken by the government a short while after the explosions is of uncertain merit. It announced that it would be willing to subscribe to certain elements of the treaty. So far, no signatory has chosen to treat the CTBT as a negotiable document.

They have unambiguously declared a moratorium on all tests. India should follow the example set by China and France and sign unconditionally. The test explosions have given it a database that should preclude the need for further testing, except in computer simulations. India is no longer a nuclear have-not, so the argument that it was being discriminated against by the established nuclear powers is no longer relevant. There is,of course, the possibility that Pakistan will engage in retaliatory tests before it, too, signs the CTBT. Alternatively, it might neither test nor sign. Either way, it is time that Indian nuclear policy ceased to be conditioned almost exclusively by a bipolar Indo-Pak perspective. With the tests, India has graduated to a larger sphere of debate. Its stand on the nuclear issue should develop to a corresponding scale, beyond regional obsessions.

The government8217;s thinking on the CTBT must also take into account the possibility of sanctions. True, India will not succumb to trade and investment curbs to the extent that Iraq did. Essential commodities and drugs will never be in short supply here, for instance. But the government should refrain from treating sanctions as an issue concerning national ego, as adversity which will somehow purify the collective spirit. Sanctions may not cripple India but they will certainly hurt, given the indifferent state of the economy. With the blasts, India has made its point.Now, it should sign the CTBT unconditionally, avoid sanctions and regain the moral high ground, which it may soon be in danger of losing.