Sir,
Two decades back, when on 11th May 1998 India conducted the nuclear test in Pokhran, there was lot of jubilation by the government and the workers of the ruling party. People were made to believe that with this India will become a powerful country to reckon with. Those who raised skepticism about the whole programme were dubbed not standing with national interest. In response, the Pakistan Government conducted nuclear tests just after 17 days on 28th May. Whereas India had done 6 explosions, Pakistan did seven. The whole talk of powerful nation with nuclear weapons got subdued. With this, we got into nuclear arms race, spending huge amount on nuclear weapons programme. At present both countries spend exorbitant amount on arms race in comparison to the expenditure on the social needs.
Now that Indian Government has developed Anti Satellite missile (A-SAT), it would be naïve to believe that our neighbouring country will not react to it. Even though the Anti-Satellite missiles are not directed towards Pakistan because they do not have any satellite, yet Pakistan would not tolerate the macho image of India. China too has satellites. However, it is not possible to target them.
Pakistan’s reaction will be seen in due course of time. But the situation has become murkier. The whole campaign against the weaponisation of outer space may be weakened. Many technologically developed countries have not jointed this star wars programme because there is a general agreement that outer space should be left without any such waste.
India is signatory to the Outer Space Treaty reached in January 1967. International treaty is binding on the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes.
We must plan our strategies based on priority needs of our people. India ranks at 140 in human development index and Pakistan at 150. Our hunger index is 103 out of 118 countries and Pakistan’s is 106. While the Government admits below poverty line people to be 20 percent of our population, the unofficial figures may be much higher. India’s happiness index fell from 133 to 140 last year out of 156 countries as per the survey by the Sustainable Development solutions network under the UN. Investments in health and education remain less than 4 percent and 3percent of respective gross domestic product (GDP) in the region. These are serious issues which to be addressed.
We should develop new strategies to combat terrorism in south Asia. Rhetoric against each other has not paid till date.
Dr Arun Mitra
on e-mail
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