Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Why India says no?
21 August 2008
Faced with unrelenting opposition from certain quarters to India's demands for parity in nuclear trade we need to revisit the arguments that this country makes for not becoming a signatory to the provisions of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Even as India weaves a torturous path towards ratification of a nuclear deal that it has struck with the United States, its citizens may need to know why the country is virtually one of the last holdouts on the proliferation front.
For the record, it was India that first proposed an end to nuclear testing in 1954.
Once again, in 1965, it was India that proposed the basic principles that, with minor American modifications, became the basis for the much ballyhooed nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). India's refusal to sign resulted from a recognition that the treaty only legitimized possession and multiplication of nuclear stockpiles by the few states that already possessed them instead of addressing universal and comprehensive non-proliferation.
Once again, in 1982, it was India that proposed a convention to ban nuclear weapons, including a ban on the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.
In 1988, it was also India that put forward a comprehensive action plan for a nuclear-free world within a specific time-frame at the third United Nations Special Session on Disarmament, in 1988.
In a speech before the United Nations, Rajiv Gandhi, then India's prime minister, argued, "We cannot accept the logic that a few nations have the right to pursue their security by threatening the survival of mankind...nor is it acceptable that those who possess nuclear weapons are freed of all controls while those without nuclear weapons are policed against their production. History is full of such prejudices paraded as iron laws: That men are superior to women; that white races are superior to the coloured; that colonialism is a civilizing mission; (and) that those who possess nuclear weapons are responsible powers and those who do not are not."
