Compulsion of N-arms for India
An international conference to mark the centenary of the satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi was inaugurated by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi in South Africa on January 29. Sonia said India’s nuclear weapon programme was made necessary because of strategic compulsion moved along with the failure to convince the world to destroy nuclear weapons completely.
Sonia said the world’s nuclear weapons’ had more atomic arsenal to destroy humanity many times and it was not just nuclear weapons. She also said that they challenged the spectre of chemical and biological weapons. Sonia noted that nuclear weapons had become even more of a terrifying reality since Hiroshima.
Sonia recalled about the blueprint for comprehensive nuclear disarmament which was presented by her late husband Mr.Rajiv Gandhi in October 1988, Universal nuclear disarmament at the United Nations. Four influential Amercians including Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, who held very different views while in office, have drawn attention to his impassioned plea.
She did not refer the role of the US and UK with regard to Iraq against the backdrop of recent developments. Sonia said that they were faced with the scourge terrorism fuelled by religious, political, ethnic or sectarian conflict. She added that it was a sad reality in many instances to be heard.
A video address to the conference was made by the former South African president Nelson Mandela from Johannesburg in South Africa.
