Voices of Protest across the Border

The recent series of 5 nuclear tests by India and 6 by Pakistan (a body blow to the on-going efforts to improve Pak-India relations), the ongoing escalation of missile race by both the countries, and the general militarisation of the region are matters of grave concern, not only for the people of the two countries but for the whole of South Asia. Although all this is being done in the name of national security, these actions serve only to heighten tensions and hostilities in the region, further aggravating insecurities for each country. It is tragic that precious resources that should be used for the welfare and betterment of the people are instead being squandered on weapons of mass destruction of unimaginable proportions.

The nuclear tests carried out by the BJP-led government in India had exposed the true designs of that fascist, religious fundamentalist party of the upper castes. The BJP which had polled hardly 30% of the votes cast in the recent Indian general elections had no mandate from the people of India to indulge in such a criminal exercise which has taken the India-Pakistan cold war and arms race to a new stage of nuclearisation of the subcontinent with all its alarming consequences. Similarly, in the 1997 elections the people of Pakistan had not given the Pakistan Muslim League or Nawaz Sharif any mandate to conduct nuclear tests or make nuclear weapons.

While the BJP and its allies were rejoicing amidst the euphoria generated by India’s nuclear tests, their counterparts in Pakistan like Jamaat-i-Islami and its fellow-travellers were clamouring for giving a befitting reply to India by conducting Pakistan’s own nuclear tests. It was pathetic to see the Pakistan People’s Party and its leader Benazir Bhutto trying to outdo the religious, sectarian and jingoist elements in this campaign in support of the nuclear bomb. And, it is disgusting now, after Pakistan has carried out six tests, to hear the same person warning everyone of the dangerous implications of the Pakistani nuclear tests for national security.

In their blind pursuit of paranoid nationalism, the vainglorious elements in both countries remain blissfully unaware of the /mass destruction potential of nuclear weapons. They do not understand that nuclear weapons are evil, mass annihilators of human life and are morally indefensible, which no country should possess and that it is the moral responsibility of the citizens of every country to try and prevent their country from ever possessing these terrible weapons.

Even some of the leading military generals in the West who had their fingers on the nuclear buttons have publicly come out to say no to nuclear weapons. How can countries like India and Pakistan which cannot even bear the burden of buying, leave alone manufacturing conventional weapons, except at the expense of the basic needs of their peoples, bear the astronomical cost of testing and manufacturing nuclear weapons? And, has anyone among the protagonists of the nuclear bomb ever thought of not only the massive destruction and devastation in terms of human lives that a nuclear bomb of any denomination will bring upon the targeted territory and far beyond but also its devastating consequences upon generations upon generations of human beings, animals and plants for decades to come?

We do not wish to quote figures because they are too frightening to look at. The worst victims of this war-mongering, arrogant and competitive nationalism (fraudulently rationalised in the name of "security") are ordinary people. The social and economic costs of development, forgone thanks to military posturing, have already proved onerous. For all the official bluster about pursuing "national greatness", India and Pakistan both feature, by all accepted indices, at the bottom of the human development ladder.

As for Pakistan (which is also applicable to India) an economically stable Pakistan with strong democratic institutions and without nuclear bombs will be many times more secure than an economically shattered Pakistan with a few nuclear weapons in its arsenal but with a population robbed of their basic human right to a decent existence. This is a lesson one should have learnt from the fate of the mighty

Soviet Union which collapsed and disappeared, not because it had no nuclear weapons and delivery systems but in spite of having so many of them. Soviet economy fell victim to the armaments race, the nuclear race and crashed under its weight, and with it went down the Soviet State.

The already entrenched international Nuclear Club has already demonstrated its inability to stop any country from going nuclear. If the countries of this exclusive club are sincere about every country signing what they call the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), they should set an example by starting to dismantle their own nuclear arsenals first.

The United Nations should make nuclear non-proliferation an integral part of its programme rather than an exclusive club dictating terms to other countries.

In the face of the ongoing jingoistic rhetoric of the nuclear lobbies of the two countries, followed by the suspension of people’s fundamental rights under a state of emergency in Pakistan, there is an urgent need to take a bold initiative towards developing a people’s peace movement in the subcontinent, and also globally, that aims at people-to-people reconciliation and maximal economic, political and social progress for all the peoples of South Asia through close regional cooperation. To promote peace and peaceability is the most urgent task of all the people of goodwill and liberal outlook. It is high time the peoples of South Asia took a bold initiative and forced their governments to publicly announce the renunciation of nuclear tests and production of nuclear weapons and missiles.

It is heartening to see peace-loving forces in India too protesting everywhere against the Indian nuclear tests and condemning the BJP Government. We appeal to all such organisations and individuals in