To Trust or Not to Trust

To Trust or Not to Trust Achin Vanaik NOT a week passes without some major newspaper in the country calling attention to the secret Pakistan preparations of a nuclear bomb and an appropriately high level statement by some senior official or the other in the Indian government that a Pakistan bomb will force India to re-evaluate its own position with regard to construction of a nuclear weapons system. The last few weeks have been no exception. Such is the general climate of 'informed' public opinion that it is just not possible to be too optimistic about the prospects of the sub-continent continuing to remain free of nuclear weapons. Gossip in the capital has it that the former foreign secretary A P Venkateshwaran was something of a 'dove' on the question of Indian nuclearisation in 'response' to Pakistani efforts at acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. If true, then his departure gives even less comfort to those who feel that the pressures for India going nuclear i e, establishing a nuclear weapons system, however rudimentary, are becoming disturbingly stronger.