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Nuclear Weapons - What is your view of India's decision to acquire nuclear weapons?
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Dr. Khilnani's Response:
I think this was a perfectly legitimate option which India developed
over the past 50 years. But I happen to think that the decision by the
BJP to actually test in 1998 and acquire weapons was done for reasons of
political opportunism, and, in fact, has harmed India's security interests.
It has harmed them because it has negated the value of India's
superiority over Pakistan in conventional weapons, and because it has
introduced a very high-risk and potentially catastrophic weaponry into a
region of high political instability and uncertainty. As a result of the
BJP's decisions, India is now to a large extent hostage to Pakistan's
ambitions.
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Dr. Kak's Response:
India has pursued its nuclear ambitions for a variety of
geopolitical reasons including that of a deterrence against China. Both
India and Pakistan appear to have built their nuclear weapons before the
90s and certainly the Americans knew that fact. India thought it
advantageous to declare itself a nuclear state in 1998, but that
declaration did not change the military equation on the ground.
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Dr. Kak's Rebuttal:
I don't think the 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan changed the strategic equation on the ground one way or another. During 1989, when India and Pakistan came close to war, the reason why each held its hand was the knowledge that the other side possessed nuclear weapons.
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Dr. Khilnani's Rebuttal:
No comment.
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