Natwar’s regret over N-tests angers MPs
By Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured parliamentarians that the Indian government has not changed its nuclear policy, after Foreign Minister Natwar Singh was reported as saying that India’s testing of the bomb in 1998 had triggered a nuclear standoff with Pakistan.
Opposition members in the Rajya Sabja were in uproar on Thursday at Natwar’s remarks. In an interview to Korea Times in Seoul, the Indian foreign minister “virtually regretted” the nuclear tests and advised North and South Korea not to follow India’s example and become nuclear powers. He said that “regret would be futile… you can’t put it back in the tube; it’s out”.
Opposition Leader Jaswant Singh, the previous foreign minister, demanded the prime minister explain if his present government had changed its nuclear policy from the one followed since the Nehru era. Manmohan denied there had been such a shift in policy. He stressed that “India is a nuclear power and will remain a nuclear power,” and that its defence policy would always be based on “continuity and national consensus with due deliberations”.
He urged the opposition to keep such issues “above partisan politics” and not get carried away by media reports. “I categorically say there is no uncertainty in our nuclear policy,” Manmohan said. Jaswant said Natwar’s deriding of the previous government for its nuclear policy had belittled the country’s achievement.
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