INDIA/ PAKISTAN
LETS KEEP IT THAT WAY
The latest flareup regarding the nuclear programmes of India and Pakistan has subsided for the moment, but it is not an issue that will go away. The concern this time revolves around India´s "getting ready" to detonate a second nuclear device, and the acquisition by Pakistan of 5000 ring magnets—needed to enrich uranium—from China.
Whenever there is the smallest perception of ´threat´ in Indo-Pak relations, resident hawks in both countries use the opportunity to call upon their governments to discard the nuclear ambiguity that has kept the peace for 25 years and to go for nuclear deterrence. We are not sure that is such a good idea.
Fortunately, the level of nuclear paranoia has receded far enough in both countries that it is possible to at least discuss the matter. At one time, it used to be impossible for Pakistani or Indian intellectuals to be vocally anti-nuclear without risk of serious injury to one´s career. Today, the worst that can happen is to be branded anti-nationalist under the pay of the CIA, RAW or ISI, but you still get invited to parties.
But that is not good enough. The voice of those against the bomb is drowned out in the patriotic babble, and the Pakistani and Indian media is very much part of the game. Reports and analyses written in nationalist ink are churned out, and it is unfortunate that Indian and Pakistani newspapers are not easily available in the other country to provide a perspective that allows a third, more logically humane, path.