Indian election alarm as BJP raises prospect of nuclear weapons rethink

[bananas]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/07/indian-election-bjp-manifesto-nuclear-weapons

Indian election alarm as BJP raises prospect of nuclear weapons rethink

Hindu nationalist opposition party, which is tipped to win lower house majority, causes concern with manifesto

Jason Burke in New Delhi
theguardian.com, Monday 7 April 2014

The Hindu nationalist opposition party tipped to win India's election has sparked concern with a manifesto which, though largely devoted to economic development, setss out uncompromising hardline positions on contentious issues and raises the prospect of a revision of the country's policy on use of its nuclear weapons.

<snip>

The long-awaited BJP manifesto includes hundreds of policy initiatives including bullet trains, investment in job creation, water connections for every household, increased local defence production and funds to boost the practice of yoga.

But it was commitments to draft a "uniform civil code" – legislation that would withdraw the rights of India's 150 million Muslims to follow their religion-based law – and to "explore all possibilities" to build a Hindu temple at the bitterly contested site in the northern town of Ayodhya, which drew most attention internationally.

<snip>

However, it is the prospect of a revision of India's nuclear doctrine, whose central principle is that New Delhi would not be first to use atomic weapons in a conflict, that has worried many in the region and beyond. Party sources involved in drafting the document told Reuters the "no first use" policy introduced would be reconsidered. The policy was introduced after India, then under a BJP government, conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistan, India's neighbour responded within weeks with nuclear tests of its own.

<snip>

[bananas]

1. Need to revisit India’s nuclear doctrine as a lot has changed since 2003 - By Admiral Raja Menon

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/need-to-revisit-indias-nuclear-doctrine-as-a-lot-has-changed-since-2003/articleshow/33465727.cms

Need to revisit India’s nuclear doctrine as a lot has changed since 2003
By Admiral Raja Menon
9 Apr, 2014, 02.18AM IST

There is a need to revisit India's nuclear doctrine because the circumstances that prevailed when it was issued in 2003 have changed. Perhaps not dramatically, but enough for our national security options to be degraded, if we don't alter the doctrine.

<snip>

So what does India do, if faced with another successful and major terrorist strike? To not use India's superior conventional military power to punish Pakistan, and turn the other cheek, would destroy the credibility of the state and the government, besides enraging India's people. This was the dilemma faced by Prime Minister Vajpayee in 2002 and by Manmohan Singh in 2008.

<snip>

The erstwhile head of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division has now launched that country into making tactical nuclear weapons, like the Nasr. What is implicit in fielding the Nasr, is that Pakistan does not think that limited nuclear use on an advancing Indian Tank column, within Pakistan, would lead to India's Massive Retaliation (MR) as promised in the Indian doctrine.

Those Indians who shelter behind India's Massive Retaliation doctrine fail to understand that MR was found to have failed during the cold war too - as evidenced by the US' loss in Vietnam and the USSR's loss in The important idea, to understand, is that the use of a small and limited tactical use by Pakistan has to be deterred by a credible response. Will India destroy all Pakistan's cities and cause five million casualties in response to losing, say, 12 tanks? This issue needs to be discussed, and since the earlier BJP government issued the nuclear doctrine, it has the full authority to 'revisit' it.

<snip>

Well now you know what the plan is - India responds to a terrorist incident by sending troops into Pakistan, Pakistan responds by tactically nuking the troops, India responds by ???.