Nuclear nightmare

The Cold War that heightened the fears of a nuclear holocaust got over 20 years ago, but the nuclear nightmare that went with it has not ended. Indeed, many more nuclear players and aspirants have emerged and stockpiles of the old powers have only increased.

The dream of nuclear disarmament is still a long distance away but that doesn’t mean that it is dead. US president Barack Obama who was in Russia last week discussed the issue of reducing nuclear warheads of both countries by a third. Gordon Brown has now come out and declared that Britain would consider cutting its own stockpiles.

How this will proceed is still unclear, but these moves come at a time when there are other putative nuclear-armed countries in the offing. Both North Korea and Iran could potentially go that way, though the latter has vehemently insisted that it has only a peaceful nuclear programme on the anvil. There is also the palpable fear of Pakistan’s
nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of al Qaeda and the

Taliban. British prime minister Gordon Brown has said during the G8 summit that he worries about the increase in the number of nuclear weapon states from the original five to nine now. Also to be considered is the nuclear proliferation treaty (NPT). There is of course the unending debate of the moral credibility of nuclear apartheid implied in the NPT.

But even India, which is staunchly opposed to the NPT for its discriminatory dimension, has palpable concerns over the emergence of new nuclear weapon states which are not inclined to play by the rules. India is in the no-man’s land of being a “non-nuclear weapon state” which is accepted by the world community thanks to exceptions made by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India now has stakes in playing the role of a watchdog in nuclear
proliferation issues.

There are however no illusions about the world becoming nuclear-free, in the manner that leaders such as Rajiv Gandhi have envisaged. That would mean a complete strategic rethink on the part of not merely the bigger nuclear states — many of whom see these weapons as necessary currency of power — but also the relatively newer players who desperately want that prestige. It is a very idealistic notion.

But the US-Russia initiative is a promising start. Even in an imperfect world replete with ambiguities and ambivalences, it becomes necessary for countries to strive to eliminate the dangers of a nuclear war. Without giving up its sovereign rights, India must also do its bit for this good cause.