NEW. DELHI, India, April 27, Reuter: India said today it had decided to review its nuclear policy, hitherto restricted to peaceful uses, because of what it called an “emerging nuclear threat” from Pakistan.

Addressing the Lower House of Parliament, Defense Minister K.C. Pant said, “The emerging nuclear threat to us from Pakistan is forcing us to review our options”.

“I assure the House that our response will be adequate to our perception of the threat”.

India exploded a nuclear device in the Western deserts of Rajasthan in 1974 but has since consistently declared it would only use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Pants statement to the Lok Sabha (Lower House) during a debate on Defense allocations, follows mounting concern in India at reports that Pakistan has developed a nuclear weapons capacity and is ready to use it as a last resort.

The minister did not specifically say that India had finally decided to develop nuclear weapons but his statement appeared to indicate that this was now considered a possibility.

India’s alarm soared last month after Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist Abdul Quadeer Khan was quoted in a newspaper interview as saying his country had the atom bomb and would use it as a last resort.

Officials in New Delhi said this proved India’s longstanding charges that Pakistan was building nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi immediately accused Pakistan in Parliament of pursuing a clanstine nuclear program.

He said this was preventing normalization of relations between the two countries which have fought three wars since in dependence in 1947. In a statement to the House,

Gandhi said in relation to the perceived Pakistani nuclear threat: “Let there be no mistake about the determination and capacity of the people of India to defend their sovereignty and integrity”.

Pants statement that India was reviewing nuclear policy coincided with a call from a former army general for the country to develop nuclear weapons. Retired Lieutenant General S.K.

Sinha was quoted as saying: “We must have the nuclear weapon when the Indian Ocean stands nuclearized by the superpowers, nuclear China has deployed nuclear missiles in Tibet and we have evidence now that Pakistan has acquired nuclear weapons.” Indian officials have repeatedly expressed concern that the United States has been turning a blind eye to Pakistan’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

Article extracted from this publication >>  May 1, 1987