Tulsi Prajna 1997 07

SR No.: 524592
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 166
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 7 MB

Page 118

Vol. XXII, No. 2
47
rearmament.
not expect a conflict with China. But at least he respected the independence of Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the separate personality of Sikkim. The fundamental of non-alignment was always on the reliance of people's development and peole's confidence in their own chosen path in international affairs. While we continue to pay homage to non-alignment, after Nehru we started to imitate the big powers which were giving primacy to military and nuclear weapons' sophistication. For the great powers for 40 years, disarmament was a "Game" of public relations and a cover for continuing and rapid We were in the vanguard to expose these fallacies, but now when the world has shifted to recognize the primacy of economics, trade and development and the relevance of people's participation for real security, India is turning to militarism at the expense of people's welfare. We stand isolated in the world by insisting on the right to build nuclear weapons. We have refused to join in the steps towards comprehensive ban on the weapon testing. This is to my mind a moral repudiation of our civilisational heritage. We are risking losing the right to speak for the poor and the weak nations of the world. We will lose our standing with enlightened democratic countries like those of Scandinavia. If Vietnam, after having suffered total destruction by a great power like United States, and actual experience of a punitive attack from nuclear China in 1979, can renounce the nuclear option, how can we morally hold our head in front of 180 odd nations of the world who have signed away the nuclear option. Such unprincipled exceptionalism will jeopardize our international credibility and our moral heritage.
It is not even a rationale for security. We would not reach the stage of having a plausible deterrent for 10, 20, 30, 50 years and in the meanwhile we would have been politically marginalised and put morally on the defensive. All this was avoidable if we had clutched to our civilisational values. We must learn our lessons from the collapse of Soviet Union which remains militarily a giant but has become politically a pygmy. It is ironical that Russia is now dependent on the handouts from the World Bank and the U.S.A. finds it in its interest to prevent the collapse of the old mortal enemy. I know what I am saying is a cry in the wilderness but here in the forum of the Anuvrat, I cannot but speak my mind.
It is not pleasant to criticise one's country but the strength of democracy demands citizen's responsibility for national future. I may add that I see some positive signs in the international approach