DEFENCE Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh has raised a very important issue for the world’s consideration. He has said, given its vulnerability to pressure from terrorist ecosystem, Pakistan’s nuclear facilities -- of production of N-arms and their storage -- should be brought under a close monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Possibly such a monitoring may not be in actual mandate of the IAEA -- and a separate arrangement may have to be sought. Nevertheless, the point Mr. Rajnath Singh -- and therefore India -- has raised cannot be put aside. For, as is well known to the world, Pakistan is a rogue State whose rulers cannot be trusted for their sense of restraint and responsibility to handle with extreme caution a power-tool as potent as Nuclear arms. When pushed to the extreme, Pakistan, under the influence and pressure from terror ecosystem, may resort to use of N-arms that are actually considered only as deterrents and not intended for actual use in a confrontation. Hence the risk and danger of its abuse and misuse on a short-fuse.

 

Hence the concern expressed by India through Defence Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh. Nobody can dismiss the element of apprehension India feels. Obviously, India wants the world to act as a counter-pressure on Pakistan’s nuclear itch -- which it expresses so often and threatens India, as referred to by Mr. Rajnath Singh. This demand has its own legitimacy and its own importance in the overall scheme of nuclear power with a rogue State like Pakistan in focus. It is time the world took a serious note of this demand -- coming from a responsible State like India. It is the biggest misfortune that a country like Pakistan was born out of hatred and not out of any philosophical belief-system stitched inseparably to its creation. Even though the two-nation theory was linked closely to two different religious identities of the people of the then undivided India, it never actually worked in practical life.

 

he Partition left crores of Muslims behind in India -- which made a clear-cut domain-definition impossible. In its own wisdom, the Indian leadership adopted secular framework and carved out a generally harmonious society where people of all faiths got equal respect. In sharp contrast, Pakistan treated itself as a fully Islamic State and allowed hatred for non-Muslims to play a negative role in its existence. And as it proceeded on that path, it also used terror as a tool of State policy. Terrorism, to say that bluntly, was like a tiger on whose back the ruler could mount only once but could not get down. For, if they dismounted, the tiger was sure to gobble them up. The same principle and condition applies to every aspect of the relationship the Pakistani rulers have with terror ecosystem. Naturally, the logic of the terrorist control on Pakistan’s power-pyramid also is applicable.

 

Hence the Indian apprehension about the abuse of Nuclear-arms during crunch times under the pressure from terrorists. For, once the control of corridors of power slips into wrong hands, then power gets abused and misused in unimaginable ways. Of course, when Mr. Rajnath Singh raised the issue at a forward base, India had already established its superior military credentials and had pushed Pakistan back into an apologetic corner by hoodwinking its Nuclear-weapons and their defence or deployment systems. In other words, Indian stance on Pakistan’s absence of responsibility did not create any fear in India. Yet, India chose to push that aspect to the fore of international discourse out of a strategic idea of reining in Pakistan in this or that manner. By putting forth this issue, India has brought to the world’s notice how Nuclear-power has fallen in vulnerable hands in Pakistan -- so that the international community becomes aware of the risk factor.