Times of India Poll Says Kargil Incident Will Escalate Into a Nuclear Conflict
What do the Pakistanis think about Nuclear War?
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 23, 1999 - The Times of India has raised the tensions higher in South Asia by conducting a poll about possible use of Nuclear Weapons in any Indo-Pakistan conflict. According to Christopher Kremmer of the prestigious Australian daily newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald: "India and Pakistan continued moving troops into position for a possible all-out war, as opinion polls (in India) showed most Indians believed nuclear weapons would be used in a conflict."The Australian newspaper reported India’s irresponsible attempt to raise the ‘temperature’ in South Asia higher when the word Nuclear weapons appeared in the media as air raid siren were tested in Delhi. An opinion poll the Australian newspaper reported; "conducted by the Times of India newspaper found that 54 percent of respondents believed nuclear weapons would be used in a fully fledged war." The newspaper quoting the Associated Press also reported that; "thousands of civilians continued to flee villages on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab, as well as the Line of Control, as tanks artillery and armor readied for the possibility of full-scale war. Government officials estimated nearly all the residents of 600 villages in Punjab had fled to Sikh shrines in large cities."
The Sydney Morning Herald correspondent further noted in his dispatch that; "India and Pakistan – which have fought three wars since independence in 1947 – both tested Nuclear weapons in May last year – and claim to have aircraft and missiles capable of delivering them. While India has pledged not to use them first, Pakistan’s standing threat to do so has been criticized by the Stockholm International Peace Institute."
Obviously some Machiavellism is at play here! Surely a localized conflict on a disputed Kargil mountain between a couple of hundred Kashmiri Freedom Fighters and 50,000 Indian troops, backed by the Indian Airforce, does not call for nuclear weapons? Even thinking about Nuclear weapons in a Kargil-like situation is a sin! But well known columnists like Sunil Narula writing in the latest issue of the newsmagazine OUTLOOK INDIA has concluded that; "Obviously, Pakistan does not fear a Nuclear India. Why else would Kargil happen? Writes Narula that Indian experts say that Nuclear arsenals do not act as deterrent in situations like Kargil. Nirula quotes one expert, Savita Pande, of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis, as claiming that; "Nuclear weapons aren’t weapons of use, though they are made use of for deterrence." She further pontificates, according to Narula, that; "Islamabad may have believed that because of nuclear parity, the Kargil conflict may not escalate into a full fledged nuclear war."
Former Indian Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit is also quoted by Narula as having said that because of nuclear parity Islamabad is emboldened to; "feel it can indulge in broad territorial adventure without provoking an Indian reaction across the international border. Secondly, in their calculations even if due to some compulsions India proceeds to give a strong reaction, Islamabad can argue that since New Delhi is taking drastic measures, it can be compelled to use nuclear weapons, thus activating the big powers or the UN Security Council."
Narula further goes on to write that; "The thinking in the Indian government is that the nuclear deterrent is irrelevant in the Kashmir situation, though it is admitted that Home Minister L K Advani had erroneously linked it to Kashmir last year (when he made the infamous statement on asinine May 18, 98 , after India had tested a nuclear device that; "Islamabad should realize the change in the geo-strategic situation in the region and the world and roll back its anti-India policy, specially with regard to Kashmir…any other course will be futile and costly for Pakistan".)
Indian disinformation and self-delusion is indeed amazing as an Open Letter (printed elsewhere in this issue) addressed to Sikh-friend Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s father – the most powerful man in Pakistan – by the Kashmir Association of North America urging him to assure the 18 million East Punjabi Sikh brothers and sisters that Pakistan’s targets in any war with India WILL be Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore and India’s Naval Flotilla NOT AMRITSAR, TARAN TARAN OR ANNANDPUR SAHIB, dynamites BJP’s nuclear theories and reveals clearly that Delhi’s rulers are resorting to disinformation to cover their Nuclear blunders. The following excerpt from the Kashmiri Open letter clears the air for us Sikhs: -
"In the present Indian contrived tension on Pakistan’s border it is important that all Pakistanis realize that the nuclear threat from India is a bluff because of meteorgeographical reasons. Former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral confessed to the late Iqbal Ahmad as much. He is reported to have told the distinguished Pakistani, a few months before he died, and I quote verbatim from Iqbal Ahmad’s interview published in the Pakistani magazine "Political Economy" and was carried by the Islamabad newspaper NEWS, that; ‘Because of the wind we can’t hope to kill Pakistanis in Lahore without killing Indians in Delhi.’ It is the same equation between Karachi and Ahmedabad. The question is: ‘Is it the same equation between Karachi and Madras or Lahore and Calcutta or Kandhar and Bangalore". Hopefully the Pakistan High Command NEVER has to seek an answer to this terrible question’.
CASE CLOSED!