HVK Archives: Admit India to nuke club: UK peers
Admit India to nuke club: UK peers - The Indian Express
Press Trust of India
()
May 20, 1998
Title: Admit India to nuke club: UK peers
Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 20, 1998
Some members of the British House of Lords have urged their
government to recognise India as the sixth global nuclear power,
saying that the present outcry over country carrying out nuclear
tests, though justified, were negative as the West had constantly
turned a blind eye to security concerns of world's largest
democracy.
"Is it much worse to have six nuclear powers in the world when
you already have five?" asked Lord Kennet during a debate by
British peers over the weekend on the Indian nuclear tests,
adding that if Britain had objections to this, the only answer
was to strive for total elimination of weapons of mass
destruction as had been proposed by India.
His suggestions evoked support form Tory Peer, Lord Archer of
Sandwell and Lord Jenkins who suggested that Britain should
strive towards convening a fourth special session on disarmament
at the UN General Assembly and that new Labour government should
put into practice their election manifesto calling for total
elimination of nuclearweapons.
The peers though unanimous in their condemnation of India for
carrying out nuclear tests voiced that the established nuclear
powers themselves did not have "clear conscience" as they had
blocked India's genuine efforts towards total nuclear
disarmament.
The peers cautioned the British government in taking what they
called "hasty actions" on imposing trade and military sanctions
and counselling that British trade and industry should be
consulted before going ahead with any step in this direction.
Baroness Williams of Crosby drew the attention of the British
government to India's long record of constantly seeking peaceful
outcomes. "Indeed many of us admired Indian government precisely
because of its record of Constantly trying to find peaceful
answers to difficult questions".
The baroness said having conducted the tests, Britain should
consider India's record, given also she is the second largest
country in the world and world's largest democracy and to try to
embrace India back to the disarmament fold by getting resumption
of negotiations on comprehensive disarmament.
A large number of peers who took part in the debate, wanted to
know whether Britain would join the outcry in the West and follow
the Americans and Japanese in imposing sanctions. Lord Moynihan,
the Opposition Leader in the House, spoke against trade sanction
on India saying it would be unwise and have damaging effect both
on poor people in India and British businessmen.
Lord Desai, a peer of Indian origin, also counselled the
government against doing anything untoward about imposing
sanctions on India saying such an action "would reverse the good
economic reform record India has been maintaining".
An upcoming young writer of Indian origin, Sunil Ehilnani whose
book The Idea of India has just been published in paperback by
Penguin has described West's reaction to Indian nuclear tests as
"pure humbug".
In a forthright article in Daily Telegraph, the young writer
said, "explosions are in fact the creation of West's own
desultory attitudes towards the world's largest democracy" adding
that these attitudes had in fact pushed a 'novice Indian
government into taking a grave but legitimate step of entering
the nuclear club".
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