Washington Post makes another revelation on Prithvi
C K Arora in Washington
The Washington Post, which said last week that India
had moved its medium-range Prithvi missiles to a site near the Pakistani border,
had another revelation on Monday.
Editorially, the daily raises a question: ''Why did India move
missiles up to its border with Pakistan?'' and then replies: ''American
diplomats quietly tried to get the Indians to undo this apparently
unprovoked initiative and were told that there was insufficient
storage space back at the production site.''
''It is hard to take that explanation at face value,'' says the newspaper.
The Post says the few Prithvi missiles at issue were moved up
without any sort of warheads and without fuel and present no
immediate military threat. But, in the single place in the world
where two nuclear-ready states have a potentially war-grade
political dispute (Kashmir) going, the move is a cause for concern.
The newspaper says American strictures on India's nuclear affairs
are commonly taken in New Delhi as evidence of a conspiracy to
assert American hegemony and to keep India from fulfilling its
destiny. This is imaginative and far-fetched and lends itself to
shrillness, it adds.
In fact, what American policy seeks to encourage in South Asia is
concentration on domestic growth.
In support of its argument, the newspaper quotes a recent statement
by President Bill Clinton who went out of his way to express appreciation of India's growth.
The President had said, ''In not very long, it will be bigger
than China.'' This process, he said, has created new opportunities
for India's membership in all kinds of things in the future and for
partnerships.
''Here lies a vista that can only be clouded by nuclear gestures.
It is not too late for the Indians to move back the missiles,'' the
Post adds, telling Pakistan not to rush toward any sort of symbolic response.
UNI
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