What Next In Nuclear South Asia?
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 24, 1998 - A meaningful response, by India and Pakistan, of a moratorium on nuclear testing, by way of restraint, means nothing in the geopolitical situation prevailing in the sub-continent. A region where two nuclear armed dirt-poor adversaries (India and Pakistan), share a common border with a psychohistory of 1000 years of religious conflict, fifty years of anguish and hatred about their territory disputes over the future of the princely states of Kashmir and Junagadh. They also have numerous other mutual suspicions, envies and fears. What, and who, can explain the insane decade-old "hot" conflict on the Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield, in Kashmir, where it takes, according to the Times of India of June 19, 1998, one lakh fifty thousand Indian rupees (US $3,488 at yesterday's exchange rate) to reach a chappati- a loaf of bread - for India's soldiers, perched at 24,000 feet, dying in daily shoot ups, with the Pakistanis, across a Cease-fire line ?A moratorium, it is obvious, does not mean a thing in South Asia as India does not even have a Command and Control organization for its nuclear weapons and the reason is attributed to the civil and military rivalries. It does not have an early warning system in place; has poor intelligence which led the Hindu Fundamentalist BJP rulers, mesmerized by the British accent of an English speaking "hawk", Jaswant Singh, a savant idiot. The May POKHARAN nuclear tests were ordered under his dumb advice and foolish assumption on the basis that Pakistan's nuclear program was a hoax and a bluff. The Pakistani intelligence is no better either! Pakistan's Airforce Chief was on a 14 days visit to Zimbabwe and South Africa- April 26 to May 11- oblivious of the Indian triarchy's preparations, and intention , to browbeat Pakistan by demonstrating its nuclear prowess only 60 miles from the Pakistani border on May 11, 1998.
The world's largest "democracy", India, (which has over 2 million soldiers, sailors, airmen and gendarmeries decked out in the 19th century Colonial -era uniforms commanded by nearly seven hundred Generals, Admirals, Air-Marshals and Inspector-Generals, with Lord Kitchner's strut and mind-set, as compared to Israel's total of twelve Generals for its three services) has not been able to negotiate a crisis defusing arrangement with neighboring Pakistan, a fledgling "democracy", despite three wars and a passage of fifty years.
Geography has not been kind to India and Pakistan either. It allows hardly any "lag-time" - three minutes - for the ballistic projectiles, conventional and nuclear, recently developed by the two hostile neighbors, to reach their targets, while their armies stand at a stance of an eyeball to an eyeball . Mega -cities of Bombay, Delhi, Madras, and Karachi, (and all of Indian Occupied Sikh Punjab) are vulnerable to surprise missile attacks as they are located less than 400 miles from the border.
The situation has been aggravated further, and it has become intolerable, following the May nuclear tests. These underground explosions have put the destiny of one-sixth of humanity - nearly one billion, three hundred million souls - living in South Asia, at the mercy of whims, and state of the mental and physical health of a triumvirate of three mediocre, 70 years old Swastika- worshipping Brahmin politicians in India whose roots are with the deep fascist RSS (Rashtriya Sevak Sangh) . Latest media reports from the Indo/Pakistan subcontinent, indicate that the BJP triarchy in Delhi has ; " accorded political clearance for moving forward the deployment of nuclear-capable PRITHVI missiles to sites close (20-35 kilometers) to the Pakistan border", in the Sikh Homeland of East Punjab, Khalistan, (a natural Buffer state held captive in the Indian map since 1947) which sits smack in the middle of the two adversaries. This latest Indian provocation reduces the flight time of its PRITHVI missiles even further and puts Delhi's nuclear forces in a hair-triggering slogan of " use them or lose them" one -up posture which will definitely spur the Pakistani's to do the same, as Islamabad's "nuclear philosophy" dictates that; " Pakistan will NOT be the first, but it won't be the second either." This new provocative "Forward Nuclear Policy" of the Indian government -a direct result of the mild US and Western reaction -to deploy PRITHVI missiles near the Indo- Pakistan border reflects the megalomania of the 70 years old Brahmin trio in Delhi. It also shows lack of political will on the part of the leadership of the developed world. The fundamentalist BJP ruler's enemity for the valiant 18 million strong monotheistic Sikh minority, the captive Sikh nation (captured in the Indian map in 1947), will become a Nuclear battlefield along with their inhabitants. Their holy shrines, will inevitably be targeted by Pakistani missiles in retaliation!
WHAT NEXT for the US Administration asked a well known Washington Post staff writer, Thomas W. Lippman, in a Sunday, June 21, report; "Administration ponders next step towards India," published in that prestigious newspaper. The answer is obvious ! Washington should seek the help of the UN, EU, OIC, Japan and China to persuade starving India and Pakistan to pull back from the brink; roll back their nuclear programs; and sign and comply with the non-proliferation and Test-ban treaties. More than that, the US Department of State, the Pentagon and the US Commerce Department should follow in letter, and spirit; a)the honest and patriotic views expressed by the great American, Sen. Jesse Helms, during a May 13, 1998 meeting of the Senate Foreign Relation's South Asia sub-committee ; b)the sincere suggestion for a South Asia "stand Down voiced by the Chinese President Jiang Zenim in a very frank interview published this week in Newsweek Magazine, and do every thing they can ensure that:- 1)India and Pakistan, DO NOT cross the "firebreak" between nuclear tests and production/deployment of nuclear weapons; 2)India removes the provocative PRITHVI missiles form the Indian Occupied Sikh Punjab, as there is no way anyone, least of all the Pakistanis or the Sikhs, can tell if the Indian missiles are nuclear tipped or not. 3)India declares Sikh East Punjab a Nuclear (as well as a missile) FREE ZONE as a confidence - Building measure; 4)US and Russia share intelligence with India, Pakistan and Israel about the "nuclear" and "missile" activities of all three and Israel stops work on extending the 900 mile range of its JEICHO II missile to 2,500 miles in collaboration with India's AGNI project . These Indian missiles target China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Gulf states; 5)All economic aid and loans to India and Pakistan are banned, by all UN members, World Bank and I.M.F; till such time the ruling elite of both these underdeveloped and dirt-poor countries give up their nuclear ambitions and take care of their hungry masses.
The ONLY solution to the nuclear proliferation, nay nuclear madness, in squalidly South Asia(where 650 million Indians- yes 650 million - and 74 million Pakistanis lack latrines; 460 million Indians and over 80 million Pakistani are illiterate; and 98 million South Asian's are blind) is an immediate nuclear/ missile roll back under UN supervision -a la Iraq. The US should , and MUST, take a lead to see that this is done. If the UN can do it in oil-rich Iraq, it could and should , do it in dirt-poor India and Pakistan as well !!