World Tibet Network News Tuesday, May 12, 1998

By Naveen Kapoor

NEW DELHI, May 12 (Reuters) - Former Indian prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral said on Tuesday he had been aware of preparations for testing underground nuclear devices when he headed the government.

Gujral replied ``yes,'' when asked in an interview with Reuters Television if preparations for Monday's stunning trio of nuclear tests had begun during his 11-month tenure, which ended on March 19 when a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took power.

Gujral's remarks were the first indication that the Hindu nationalist BJP was not ploughing a lonely furrow in its declared aim of keeping the country's nuclear option open, following a careful line laid down since India's first and only previous nuclear test in 1974.

In reply to a question on why the tests, which have sparked a wave of global fury and dismay, had not been conducted during his time in power, Gujral said:

``It is a process. It is not a question of getting something across as a gimmick... We were trying to see that it could be avoided. I was talking to all the visiting leaders. My last discussions with the President of France were on this subject.''

French President Jacques Chirac visited India in late January when Gujral headed a lame-duck administration.

``This was something which was on our agenda for quite some time now,'' Gujral said.

He said Indian nuclear scientists had reached ``certain conclusions'' using computer simulations. ``But those conclusions needed ground testing.''

The former premier agreed that India's BJP-led government could not have ordered from scratch the nuclear tests in the brief seven weeks it has been in power.

``There is a continuity. Governments of India have one good thing and that is that we continue the policies. And what has been done had my full approval because it needed all that preparation,'' Gujral said.

Gujral said that as foreign minister in the short-lived coalition government that preceded his, he had tried to persuade the world's nuclear weapons states to denuclearise, especially since the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty came into existence in 1996.

``In my discussions with the American president (Clinton) and with the secretary of state, I had emphasised this point. Unfortunately, the replies were always evasive and always non-convincing,'' Gujral said.

``It has always been known that India has the capacity and capability and we were only exercising self-restraint in the interest of denuclearisation of the world,'' he added.

``The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty...was a charade. It was neither comprehensive nor did it ban all type of tests,'' Gujral said, referring to the pact that banned test explosions but not laboratory testing of nuclear arms.

He said he hoped the United States and other nations would not impose economic sanctions on India.

``I don't think they should do it because it would be morally wrong. Those who have it want to take action against those who are trying only to assert their sovereign right. I am sure that the powers-that-be will have a more sober reaction to this.''

Gujral said he was equally opposed to penalties that might be imposed by multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

``This is a world which must apply the same standards to everybody. Was the World Bank worried when, before signing the CTBT, France and China undertook tests?...Are we worried about tests or are we worried about nuclear weapons? If we are worried about nuclear weapons, then we should have a universal application.''

Gujral said Monday's nuclear tests had decisively moved India away from a ``Pakistan-centric'' foreign policy.

``India's consideration and India's security cannot be and need not be Pakistan-centric,'' he said. ``We live in a much wider world...We are seeing Diego Garcia which has nuclearised...We are seeing nuclearisation across Tibet. India's consideration and security concerns are much wider.''

Gujral said he was confident India's tests would not trigger a damaging arms race on the subcontinent.

``Now it will easier to stop the race since deterrents are effectively demonstrated. Why go on wasting money on arms... Basically, now a new stage can come between India and Pakistan when wars are ruled out.''