ho could have imagined that the Indian govern- Wment would meet its nemesis so soon? Many among the educated in India were carried away by its jingoistic rhetoric Of Warmongers... when the BJP government went euphoric over its May 1998
Madhu Kishwar nuclear blasts and were fooled into believing that gate crashing into the exclusive nuclear club insured India’s security against aggressive neighbours like Pakistan and China. As far as no longer that of scientists. In a the actual magnitude of the blasts China is concerned, the BJP world where science moves at as well as the weaponisation of government had to eat humble pie super-high speeds, nuclear their respective nuclear delivery within days of declaring that our weapons and missile development systems. nuclear weapons were meant as a is today second-rate science. The Within India too a few rational counter to the threat posed by undeniable fact is that the voices continue to express similar China. As soon as the Chinese technology of nuclear bombs doubts about India’s nuclear boasts. indicated that they had taken belongs to the 1940s, and the To quote A. Gopalakrishnan, the note of our declaring them furious pace of science makes that former chairman of the Atomic Energy enemies, our ministers and other ancient history... Making these Regulatory Board, from that same policy makers got jittery. Since weapons no longer impresses the issue of Frontline: then they have been finding rest of the world.” “It is now somewhat clear that newer ways to placate the The international scientific the [Department of Atomic Energy] Chinese, including the recent trip community has right from the DAE and the [Defence Research to China by external affairs beginning expressed serious Development Organisation] DRDO minister Jaswant Singh. doubts and made snide comments selectively used the nuclear test Our worthy neighbour concerning the claims of both data through preferential analysis Pakistan soon proved that it was India and Pakistan with regard to routes to show an unrealistically as good as India in the tit for tat game. The Pakistanis took no time in setting off their own nuclear blasts. That presumably showed up India’s claims for what they were. If a “rogue nation” that is also a “failed state” could match India, there was nothing so worthy of mention in India’s so- called achievement in going openly for nuclear weapons. Parvez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear and High Energy Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, interviewed in the June 4, 1999 issue of Frontline, aptly puts Indo-Pak nuclear achievements in perspective: “...making bombs and missiles of the type Pakistan and India possess is now the work of engineers, and Courtesy: INDIA TODAY 24 MANUSHI large explosive power from the Only the Indian public army had entrenched itself well devices that were tested. This aside, remained uninformed and gullible. enough to build sophisticated it is impossible to believe Many were led to believe that we bunkers and other facilities for scientifically that the five nuclear had indeed demonstrated to the launching attacks to cut off the tests of May 1998 have indeed made world our strength and resolve to Kargil-Leh highway. The us totally capable of designing, become significant players on the realisation of the significance of fabricating and deploying weapons nuclear international military the intrusion was forced upon to suit our ‘minimum deterrence’ scene credibly. That illusion lies them by local people rather than needs. Cleverly, the government or shattered in Kargil. being an outcome of their own the scientists have never defined India’s possession of nuclear intelligence. Moral of the story: minimum deterrence; it is missiles did not deter the the best of weapons cannot conveniently said that it can never Pakistani military from sending protect us if our intelligence is so be quantified. The same is the story intruders across the Line of flabby and the army is not trained with the Agni tests. After one test Control to occupy portions of to be efficient and proactive. of the Agni-II, are we ready to Indian territory in the Kargil deploy these missiles? The DAE, region of Jammu and Kashmir. Our Pakistan’s Nuclear Blackmail the DRDO and the BJP-led army is having a tough time Most important of all, the Government may have succeeded in pushing out the intruders. The government seems genuinely fooling most of the people of India, government has had to admit that nervous, despite all its brave but the rest of the world will there was an “intelligence rhetoric, about the continuation certainly not accept these failure”. The Indian government of this border conflict lest it break proclamations of strength. In order was unaware of this ongoing out into a full-fledged war. The to become a nuclear weapons power intrusion in its territory for a nervousness is primarily due to capable of causing concern to considerable length of time. It the fear that the Pakistanis may China, we still have miles to go.” woke up only after the Pakistani not hesitate to use their missiles

Need for a Nuclear Audit The international scientific community has questioned India’s claims to have exploded a thermonuclear device on the basis of seismological and other data gathered by them (see Science, September 25, 1998 pages 1930, 1967 and 1968 with accompanying references). They assert that the Indian blasts detected by the international monitoring system were too low on the Richter Scale to be a successful thermonuclear explosion. At one point, the government spokesman did try to respond to international scepticism by saying that they would prove the truth of their claim that they had exploded a true hydrogen bomb by undertaking critical tests to establish the presence of tritium at the explosion site. However, after announcing that they were to start digging cores at the site, we hear no more of it. It is worrisome that the salient response of our nuclear establishment represented by Chidambaram and Ramanna has been to deflect our attention from the evidence and the ensuing claims and counterclaims that we successfully tested a hydrogen bomb and wrap themselves in the national flag and deflect all criticism and questions by alleging that this is part of a western conspiracy to belittle and undermine the achievements of India. They have failed to counter the scientific criticism of their claims to have a hydrogen bomb and a viable control and delivery system by producing hard, scientific evidence. And yet they are getting away with it all. They have even been given the status of heroes though there is actually no objective scientific, military or political audit of their claims and achievement. The Pakistani claims of the number of nuclear weapons tested are also treated with great scepticism. The more cautious among the sceptics point out that even if all of India’s claims about the Pokhran II explosions are true, India has not yet perfected an easily deliverable nuclear weapon system. If it is indeed true that our delivery and guidance systems are not foolproof and that we are overconfident about them, the implications are truly frightening. We could easily blow ourselves up if a missile meant for Karachi lands in Bhopal. It is a mystery why the Indian nuclear establishment is refusing to provide concrete details about the actual state of weaponisation even after formally declaring India a nuclear weapons power. Our nuclear establishment has emerged as our most sacred holy cow whose credibility is not allowed to be questioned. In the same way the Pakistani army establishment has put itself above any civil or political control.

112 25 Courtesy: INDIA TODAY with nuclear warheads if they begin to lose a conventional war. The intransigence of the Pakistani rulers and Pakistan's continuing bravado is also based on their realisation that they can more easily keep India on tenterhooks now that they are a declared nuclear weapons power that has not given up the option of using its nuclear weapons even if India does not use them first. In this dangerous scenario, there is no dearth of voices in India who try to add more fuel to the fire. One such irresponsible example is Brahma Chellany who, in a lead article on the editorial page of The Hindustan Times of June 16, 1999 argued that India should not hesitate to use its thermonuclear weapons to counter any Pakistani threat to use its nuclear missiles. The RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya has openly demanded that India Excerpts from the ‘Hardtalk’ conversation on should strike Pakistan with BBC London between Tim Sebastian and nuclear bombs. Pakistan’s Information Minister This shows how unintelligent the Indian intelligentsia can be. Tim Sebastian: “India has said it will not use nuclear weapons What if the counterparts of Mr. first... but you won’t tell me, sitting here and now, that under no Chellany in Pakistan were to take circumstances will Pakistan ever use the nuclear weapons first?” this threat seriously and indulge Mushahid Hussain: “Well, I can only say that Pakistan always has in a pre-emptive nuclear strike? peaceful intentions and we hope that it will never come to that Even if we actually had hydrogen situation.” TS: “This is blackmail of the international community; you are bombs ready to hurl at them saying, get involved in our dispute or I'm holding out the possibility of capable of causing even more a nuclear war.” damage in Pakistani territory than MH: “No, no, we never said that.” they do in ours, what do we gain? TS: “Yes, Sultan Mehmood on your side in Pakistani administered The whole subcontinent will be Kashmir said that saving the lives of a billion people on this planet, reduced to nuclear rubble. those lives are at risk unless this conflict is internationalised. That’s If we are bent upon committing holding the international community to blackmail.” civilisational suicide, let us at MH: “The PM of ‘Azad’ Kashmir is entitled to his views.” least use less traumatic methods TS: “You don’t share his views?” MH: “We hope that it won’t come to that, that’s why we feel the to destroy ourselves. Clearly the international...” warmongers among us don’t seem TS: “Thats what is nuclear blackmail—get involved, otherwise there to have the slightest hesitation in will be nuclear war.” proposing measures which will MH: “No, we are the good guys, we are at the receiving end, we are hurl us forward into a radioactive the victims of aggression.” stone age. Our leaders should TS: “I should tell you, people don’t accept those views—you have have the sense to know that you a hard job as minister of information, don’t you?” Times of India, June 25, 1999 can’t compete with lunatics and

26 MANUSHI hope to defeat them by pitching India has emerged as a net while Pakistan can use our error your own irrationality at a higher loser by using Pokhran II to to pretend to be acting purely level than theirs. The Pakistani declare itself an official nuclear defensively. Thus, we have military and political establishment weapons state. India had become even more vulnerable to is filled with irresponsible unquestioned superiority over nuclear blackmail. The recent power freaks. If we stoke their Pakistan in conventional BBC interview of Pakistani fears, they are capable of running weaponry and troops. By information minister Mushahid amok without much regard for the deciding to declare itself a nuclear Hussain confirms this. (see box well being of their own people. weapons power it surrendered on page 26) Worse, still, the Our nuclear blasts and that advantage because, given Pakistanis may be ready to sell accompanying belligerent and the irresponsible character of the nuclear technology to terrorist bellicose noises have seriously Pakistani military and political outfits like the Taliban. The increased the likelihood of such establishment, India is viewed as Taliban is quite capable of not just an eventuality. the instigator of nuclear threats threatening but actually using

Letter from Balraj Puri: Is Our Government Playing Pakistan’s Game?

One of the motives of Pakistan in its Kargil adventure seems to be its compulsion to extend the area of conflict to non-Kashmiri Muslim areas of the state. After militancy reached a plateau in the Kashmir valley, where predominant sentiment remained in favour of Azadi motivated by a strong sense of Kashmiri nationalism, Pakistan wanted to turn it into a Muslim movement for Pakistan. As the supply of Kashmiri youth as recruits for militant outfits declined, Pakistan increasingly relied on non-Kashmiri recruits from Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Punjab who had an ethnic affinity with the Muslim majority regions of Jammu. The next target was a Muslim majority region of Ladakh, Kargil. Some of the intruders belong to the same ethnic stock across the Line of Control called the Northern Areas which have recently been merged with Pakistan as its fifth province. Surprisingly, there was no protest against this move by the Government of India or the Jammu and Kashmir state government. Armed groups from the Pakistan side of the LOC, along with army regulars, intruded on the Indian side, partly to divert popular discontent on the Pakistani side. Wittingly or unwittingly, the National Conference government in Jammu has given encouragement to communal polarisation. In the Jammu region the BJP won both parliamentary seats for the first time and swept all Hindu majority segments in the 1998 elections. Earlier in normal elections the BJP had lost in each assembly segment. The National Conference consolidated its hold in three out of six Muslim majority assembly segments in the Jammu region on a blatantly communal plank. It campaigned for removing this area from possible Hindu domination by formally proposing, on behalf of the Regional Autonomy Committee, the division of Jammu region into Hindu and Muslim majority parts, after getting rid of me as Chairman. On a similar note, the intrusion in Kargil followed a government proposal to divide an ethnically homogeneous region of Ladakh into the Buddhist and Muslim majority regions of Leh and Kargil. Thus what Pakistan wanted to achieve through militant means has been attempted by the Jammu and Kashmir government, perhaps with BJP backing, through political and constitutional means. Ominously, the Pakistani and J&K government’s moves follow renewed American pressure for division of the state on a communal basis. How far our central and state government are supporting the Pakistan and American game plans due to drift and ignorance is worth a serious probe. Balraj Puri is one our foremost human rights activists and former chairman of the Regional Autonomy Committee of J & K

112 27 nuclear weapons, should they madness started with Indira get to be considered a powerful come to possess them. Gandhi trying to play Durga with prime minister if he flexed India’s In the early decades of our the Pokhran I explosion in 1974, puny nuclear muscles. Those who independence, when India played which told the world that India talk of nuclear weapons as a an active role in pressing intended to be a nuclear power. deterrent to war ought to feel for nuclear disarmament, we That got the Pakistanis crazed embarrassed that we have been were a respected voice in the enough for the then prime minister dragged by the ear into a near war world comity of nations. Apart Zulfikar Bhutto to declare that situation by an otherwise weak from providing leadership to they were willing to eat grass in neighbour so soon after our nuclear poor third world countries, order to match India’s “nuclear blasts in what is one of the most even the first world powers might”. And they did exactly that, expensive and difficult battlefields which had the capability to using every possible means, in the world far more favourable to produce nuclear bombs but had including stealing nuclear fissile small numbers of infiltrators than to voluntarily forsworn nuclear materials and technology from India’s regular armed forces. The weaponisation respected India. western scientific establishments conflict also threatens to spill over Our refusal to sign the CTBT and buying technology from into other areas (see box of letter accord was also seen as a North Korea and China. from Balraj Puri on page 27). If principled stand as long as we Vajpayee only emulated Mrs. dragged on, this is bound to rejected the nuclear option. Gandhi’s example, naively hoping precipitate a serious crisis in the To be fair, it’s not just the BJP that just as she was able to already tottering Indian economy. government which has brought us mesmerise people into believing That is, if we can avert a nuclear to this greater vulnerability. The she was invincible, he too would holocaust.

...And Peaceseekers Proposing An Asian Women’s Day

e are so riveted on Kargil to play a leading role in the fight bring democracy and human rights Wthat (along with the rest of for democracy. to our country. It is no longer the world) we have neglected “Half a century ago at the time possible even for housewives to another kind of momentous battle Burma regained her independence keep out of politics, because being fought across the eastern the women of our country enjoyed politics have invaded the traditional border of India. Aung San Suu a reputation for their vigour and domain of housewives... Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel progressiveness and for their As our country is a union of Peace Prize in 1991 for her ability to work shoulder to shoulder many people, it is only by leadership of the pro-democracy with their menfolk. Today, it is building understanding and unity movement in Burma, seems to especially important for our women between the different ethnic have receded in public memory. to work actively to overcome the groups that we will be able to World leaders think they have difficulties with which our country achieve genuine success in any satisfied the demands of their is faced. According to a number of cause that we undertake. conscience by honouring her with psychologists women are better Therefore, would like to request several awards and prizes. Now able to cope than men in crisis the women of all the ethnic they allow her to rot in Burma, a situations. We should use this nationalities of Burma to strive prisoner of the military junta. ability to bring peace and progress together for our country...” On June 19, 1999, on the to our country, and to better the On June 19, in collaboration occasion of her 54th birthday, condition of people the world over. with the Women’s Rights and Aung San Suu Kyi issued a There is a great need for our women Welfare Association of Burma message to the women of Burma of Burma to use their capabilities to and India International Centre,

28 MANUSHI MANUSHI organised a meeting to anything momentous.” After her coup in 1962, announced a celebrate the birthday of Aung marriage to Michael Aris in 1972 referendum on Burma’s political San Suu Kyi. She is one of the she settled down in England and future. Daw Suu, like other most outstanding political leaders spent most of her time taking care Burmese, was electrified. This of our time and is leading a of her family, while carrying on announcement became the courageous nonviolent satyagraha her research and writing on Burma catalyst for her decision to step against one of the world’s most as additional activities. forward and play an active role in tyrannical and long lasting It was on the last day of March bringing democracy to her military dictatorships. 1988 that Suu Kyi suddenly left country. Aung San Suu Kyi's father for Burma after receiving the Her husband has written in his Aung San led the struggle for news that her mother had suffered introduction to her book of essays independence from British a severe stroke. In the preceding Freedom From Fear that from the colonial rule and from the months young Burmese students time they fell in love and decided Japanese occupation. Much like had begun to take to the streets to get married Daw Suu used to our own Subhash Chandra Bose, calling for radical political say to him that if her people ever he too was given military training reforms. The military authorities needed her she would not fail by the Japanese during the responded with lethal violence, them. She constantly reminded Second World War. He and his killing thousands. On July 23, him that one day she would have associates, known as the 1988 Ne Win, the military general to return to Burma, and that she legendary “Thirty Comrades”, who had ruled Burma for decades counted on his support. To quote entered Burma with the invading with an iron hand since he from one of her early letters: “I Japanese army who assumed power through a military only ask one thing, that should promised Burmese my people need me, you independence. But when would help me to do my that promise proved false FREE BURMA! duty by them.” That is why he went underground to she kept her Burmese lead the resistance citizenship and retained movement with the her Burmese passport. Independence Army he had In the nationwide created. He assisted the re- turbulence which followed invading Allies and the announcement of a negotiated the terms of referendum, Daw Suu’s Burmese independence house quickly became the with them. However, he and centre of political activity practically his entire because of her unique status provisional cabinet were as the daughter of Aung San gunned down by political – a man loved and revered as rivals on 19th July, 1947 just a founder of the nation. a few months before the Despite all the frenetic transfer of power. activity in her house, she Aung San Suu Kyi was ensured it remained a haven only two years old when her of love and care for her dying father was assassinated. mother. But stories of his selfless By the time her mother courage and vision of a free died on 27 December, the and democratic Burma had wave of mass demonstrations a permanent influence on prior to the elections had her life. Yet, all those who produced thousands of knew her well, including her martyrs. Three puppet heads husband, testify that prior of state were forced by the “Until we have a system that guarantees rule of law and basic democratic to 1988 it had never been institutions, no amount of aid or investment will benefit our people.” people’s movement to resign her intention “to strive for –Aung San Suu Kyi in quick succession though

112 29 ultimate power remained vested invalid, it made no difference in the military coterie to the election results. On May surrounding Ne Win. In 27th 1990 the people of Burma September 1988 these officers voted overwhelming in favour rearranged their ruling group, and of her party and gave the NLD called themselves the State Law a landslide victory. The NLD and Order Restoration Council won 392 out of the 485 seats. (SLORC). They reiterated the However, the military junta re- promise of free and fair elections neged on their promise to turn while continuing shooting, jailing over power to the democrati- and torturing people to suppress cally elected government and the mass protests. Daw Suu and instead began a fresh wave of her associates responded to the repression. Thousands were challenge by forming the National murdered in the ensuing League for Democracy (NLD). crackdown, many more put in Through this period of prison and Suu Kyi herself was repression, she kept issuing placed under house arrest. appeals to the military rulers for Thereafter, the military estab- dialogue. Her appeals were all lished an even tighter grip rebuffed. In the next seven over Burmese society. months Daw Suu consolidated The continuing harshness her party’s support base by official assurance that her followers of the regime can be gauged from undertaking an extensive tour of the would not be tortured in jail. the fact that SLORC recently did country even while enduring Thereafter, the authorities tried not even let her terminally ill harassment and vilification by the breaking her spirit by making it husband come on a visit to see authorities. However, the more she difficult for her husband and sons her for one last time, hoping that was attacked, the more support and to visit her. The children’s Burmese they could thus blackmail her into love she got from the people. passports were cancelled and all leaving Burma. Once again Suu On July 20 1989 she was placed requests for visas denied to them. Kyi stood her ground and under house arrest while thousands The authorities aimed to isolate her declined their offer of exile, even of her young party workers were from her family hoping that in this though it meant not being able to killed or arrested. Suu Kyi went on way she could be pressured to see her husband before he died. a hunger strike demanding that she leave the country for good. Her democratic movement is too be sent to prison to join her Even though the authorities currently at a very low ebb and young supporters. She ended her contrived to declare her candi- the regime seems to have fast only when she was given an dacy in the ensuing elections temporarily demoralized the

30 MANUSHI Burmese people. But Suu Kyi responsibility, rooted in cleansing and purifying force. We stands as a beacon of hope. Buddhism, has been developed can all be proud However, it was not just for her into an inspiring political ideology of this daughter of Asia for she courage that she has been hailed that she describes as Burma’s dared provide vision and leadership as “an outstanding example of the revolution of the spirit. not just to women but to all the power of the powerless” (Vaclav She has made Gandhi’s hope people of Burma. Her Havel). It is noteworthy that and vision come alive that “in the political message, like Gandhi’s, though she is the daughter of a war against war women must and transcends national boundaries and military hero, she has not let her should lead.” She demonstrated by speaks to all those who cherish admiration for her father make her her example that if women bring freedom and human dignity. blindly follow the militarist path. womanly qualities into the political She has been celebrated as the domain rather than masculinise Celebrating Our Own Mahatma Gandhi of Burma themselves in order to prove Many of us in the women’s because she has upheld themselves equal to men, their entry movement are more familiar with nonviolence, compassion, into public life can act as a the writings of Germaine Greer forgive-ness and love as essential components of the Burmese movement for democracy. She harbours no bitterness even towards those who have incarcerated her and her colleagues and murdered and tortured many of her supporters. She has constantly appealed to them for dialogue rather than continued confrontation. Like Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi blends the quest for justice with the search for spiritual truth. “My highest aspiration is very much a spiritual one: purity of mind.” Hence her choice of satyagraha— devoted to truth and non- violence—as the weapon of her struggle for democracy. Her essential message of self-

112 31 than those of Sarojini Naidu or of building socialism. Within replace the Burmese military Aung San Suu Kyi. We know more decades the country has been regime by a majoritarian about the politics of Washington reduced from a wealthy land to an democracy dominated by the or London than of the happenings impoverished society. The pro- ethnic Burmese. The NLD has in Colombo or Rangoon. We talk democracy movement proposes a committed itself to a society of international women’s far reaching programme of which makes equal dignified solidarity while we fail to lend removing their own corrupt space for minorities. even token support to women’s licence permit raj and promises Most important of all she is peace initiatives in Sri Lanka or revision or repeal of all laws, endeavouring to liberate her the momentous movement led by decrees, regulations and other people from fear and the habit of Aung San Suu Kyi. Those who restrictions that circumscribe cringing before authority. don’t make the effort to productive economic activities. During the recent contentious understand their own history and In addition, she also faces the debate on the women’s reservation culture, their neighbours, their challenge of a multiethnic society bill, I thought constantly of Aung strengths, their weaknesses, their in which many of the minorities San Suu Kyi as an example of the moments of glory and defeat are have faced repression and even way I would like to see women unable to forge meaningful attempts at extermination at the perform in politics. At a time when relations with the outside world. hands of a regime which is our polity is undergoing a severe That is why Indian (and most dominated by military officers of crisis, at a time when our political South Asian) nationalism is of a Burmese ethnic stock. Aung San institutions are experiencing very phobic variety. It Suu Kyi’s agenda is not to serious loss of purpose and is only when we learn credibility, it would be to recognise and very short-sighted of celebrate our own us to ghettoise our heroes and heroines concerns to merely demanding a quota for and create our own women. We ought to symbols of inspiration play a leading role in that we will begin to rejuvenating our define our own democracy and reform- aspirations rather ing our decaying than live off borrowed political institutions. ideologies and It is not enough to borrowed inspiration. demand a piece of the In the present day pie, if the pie itself has context, I cannot think gone bad. We need to of a more apt symbol develop the skills to of inspiration for us in bake a new pie which India than Aung San caters to the needs of Suu Kyi. all, not just this or that The Aung San Suu group. The future Kyi led pro- belongs to those who democracy movement can rise above narrow in Burma is sectional interests to addressing itself to create a consensual very similar basis for a new polity challenges to those to change not just the we are facing in India rules of the game, but today. Burma’s devise a better isolationist regime society—just as Aung wrecked Burma’s San Suu Kyi has economy in the name endeavoured to do.

32 MANUSHI