In testing nuclear weapons this week India is following the irresponsible
example of most of the Superpowers.
India delayed cooperation over treaty agreements to stop testing until
further tests moved them further along the process of nuclear weapon
development. While the BJP (new Indian government leading party) is
making political capital from the artifice of "nuclear virility", it is
clear that the preparations for this testing have taken place over a
much longer period than the short months that they have been in power
and that the outmoded and immoral logic of deterrence has infected the
psyche of India's powerful.
The world has been treated to deception from India in their diplomatic
posture that the provisions of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty were
not strong enough for India to sign. Now we are treated to a truly
fantastic display of hypocrisy from the declared nuclear weapon states
with their condemnation of India coming directly after they have blocked
all progress towards fulfilling their treaty obligations at the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) meeting in Geneva last week.
While New Zealand has rightly moved to strong condemnation of India's
defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons the criticisms of the superpowers
must be placed in context. The NPT meeting had just broken up in
disarray after the Western block stymied all attempts to make the
nuclear weapon states honour their Treaty commitment to eliminating
nuclear arsenals.
India, seemingly frustrated by this lack of progress, has followed
the example of states who still view these weapons as the ultimate
symbol of a great nation. In that they have forgotten the old adage
that two wrongs do not make a right, but who from the superpowers
can question India's "nuclear equals status" thinking while themselves
still clinging to such notions as permanent status and veto power on
the Security Council of the UN being predicated by declared nuclear
capability.
Unless all nuclear weapon states begin immediate multilateral
negotiations for abolition, proliferation is inevitable, and
South Asia can slip into a nuclear arms race. This would of
course be to the pecuniary interests of other nuclear weapon
states and their allies, however much they may initially decry
it. We now know that Pakistan is likely to test within weeks if
not days from now.
The complexity of the situation makes New Zealanders ask where
New Zealand energy of protest should best be focused at this time.
Although apologists for India seek to exempt their country from
negative attention by contrasting their actions to the poor attitude
and actions of the United States in particular, and
although sanctions from the United States are an inappropriate and
certainly hypocritical step, this does not mean that New Zealanders
should be deflected from directing protest to the Indian Government.
By playing at nuclear elitism the Indian government and its supporters
are throwing credibility to the wind and arrogantly letting the vast
poor of their nation be exposed to the devastating effects of economic
sanctions. In a country which cannot afford to send most of its
children to school or maintain public amenities at a healthy level
in most of its villages, the pursuit of the technology to annihilate
its neighbours as some national achievement is a horrifying testament
to the depth of separation between the needy and the powerful. It
will be the poor of India that will pay the real price as India is
subjected to isolation by both the powers that fed her nuclear
ambitions as well as those that are threatened by her acquisition
of the nuclear capability.
State radio in India is broadcasting celebrations. The BJP, the
main opposition party and the Indian president are all trumpeting
the tests as a glorious step. The current exhilaration amongst
the wealthy and powerful in India at entering the circle of declared
nuclear states is surely the worst kind of glee - a ghastly revelry
in the face of the myriad inevitable damages done. The rhetoric in
India does not address the consequences to regional stability, global
nuclear disarmament, nor the worsened fate of the South Asian poor.
This is a situation where the immediate damage from the crime of
developing weapons of mass destruction is particularly vivid.
The immediate damage comes from loss and deflection of vast amounts
of revenue sorely needed for civil purposes. There is also inestimable
damage in the development of a culture of supreme hardening to violence,
which supports attachment to status from such unwieldy instruments of
power.
The Indian people involved in current celebrations should hear that
their exhilaration at entering the circle of declared nuclear states
is in our view an indulgence in the crime of developing weapons of
mass destruction.
