HVK Archives: I applaud your PM on N-tests: Gere
I applaud your PM on N-tests: Gere - The Times of India
Sabina Sehgal Saikia
()
May 23, 1998
Title: I applaud your PM on N-tests: Gere
Author: Sabina Sehgal Saikia
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 23, 1998
While applauding the Indian government for conducting the recent
nuclear tests at Pokhran, Hollywood actor and Tibet activist
Richard Gere says that he is confident that the U.S. economic
sanctions being imposed against the country would not succeed.
Speaking to The Times of India over the telephone from his
residence in Malibu, California, Mr Gere said he would be
lobbying with his government in the U.S. and, if required, with
the UN to ensure that India is not "punished" for daring to
expose the hypocrisy of the "larger powers working against the
third world in order to destabilise it." In fact, he spent all of
Thursday in Houston, mobilising public opinion on this very
issue, he said.
Mr Gere clarified that he was speaking for himself and not the
Tibetan community. "I have been regularly raising issues vital to
the Asian sub-continent and I think that other nations in the
region have been kowtowing to China, the UN and other
superpowers, for too long now," he said.
While favouring the conversion of the region into a zone of
peace, Mr Gere said that, as a realist, he was aware that India
was left with no option but to conduct the tests. "A very
aggressive build-up of weapons of mass destruction is not the
monopoly of the members of the UN security council alone," he
said. Mr Gere added that the recent tests were a significant
example of "the only rational democracy in Asia" waving a flag at
China, "the bully and troublemaker which has destabilised Asia".
He further pointed out that it is "patently unfair and immoral"
for the big powers to impose a set of rules for India which are
not applicable to themselves. "It is absurd-it would be far more
honest if the rules were equally and uniformly applicable to the
members of the UN security council, including the U.S., China,
England, France and Japan," Mr Gere said.
On the issue of China, Mr Gere reiterated that it was not
Pakistan but China which was the "real enemy". Pointing out that
Tibet served as a buffer zone before it was "forcibly invaded by
China", he said that the region was essentially demilitarised
until the "Chinese government started using Tibet as a nuclear
arsenal. It was this that really brought China and India into
conflict".
"I find the Indian stand encouraging and applaud the Prime
Minister of India for having the courage to tell the world the
truth he said. It is this voice of "truth and realism" which
would force the world to pay attention to the concerns and
contradictions of the nuclear issue in this region. "I see
nothing wrong with India giving a notice to the world that it is
under threat, and the real threat is China, and this is the only
true voice from a nation which is, at the same time, committed to
the great Gandhian traditions for which it is respected," he
added.
While cautioning India not to get caught up in an arms race with
neighbouring Pakistan, Mr Gere said, "As an American, I feel
responsible for the weaponisation of Pakistan because it was the
U.S. which supplied technology, along with China, to Pakistan."
Confident that the U.S. action against India would not count for
much, Mr Gere said that it was ironic that the Clinton
administration was under fire for allegedly receiving large sums
of money from the Chinese for the Democratic national campaign.
"Under these circumstances, I'm sure it isn't going to be easy
for the U.S. President to support the Chinese position," he said.
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