Nuclear Debate Rages in the SubContinent

Let me start with three news items I picked off from the dailies and other media.

1. Father of Pakistani Nuclear Science's now revealed letter claims Proliferation of nuclear technology was made with knowledge of the government system in Pakistan.

2. A senior Indian nuclear scientist who headed one of the functions of the nuclear tests carried out by India in 1998, says the results were forged.

3. China has held over 30 nuclear tests and have over 200 nuclear warheads, with most of them packing over 50 kilotons of destruction within them.

So let us doctors of our own fates try and figure out how these headlines might influence our lives. Our leaders up at the helms, are increasingly lending their voices lent to the notion of a 'Nuclear Weapon free World'. With CTBT, NPT (and lots of T's- other than TUPAC) and other measures to curb proliferation of nuclear technology floating around the world like clouds that just stick in the sky but never pour down.

At first, the second news sets in us a sense of security, at least someone has lower ability in nuclear devastation terms. But as many Strategic and Defense specialists fear, this could just tilt the Nuclear-weapon balance thats maintained in the Sub-continent between China-Pakistan-India now dangerously toward the Sino-Pak club. Pakistan having developed most of its nuclear technology with help from China and its Communist accomplice- North Korea. Hence, the obvious teamwork should work in case of a nuclear war.

The claim by one of India's prominent nuclear scientist, that the test results were doctored in termsof the power of the blasts. The blast was claimed to be highly succesful and packed over 45 kilotons of explosive power. But his claim, says that should stand corrected to around 35 kilotons. Now this places serious doubt over the perfection of India's nuclear arsenal and its delivery capabilities. It is a known fact that to develop a nuclear weapon you need at least more than 5 to 10 tests. You might be able to test the fissile material in preset conditions but its altogether another ball game when (if at all) its put to use on the field. India was the lead weight that held the tensions in the sub-continent submerged. With its density in question, it now remains to be seen how the volatile area reacts.

News coming out of the Pakistan makes me feel like, looking at a woman wearing a veil(burkha) who is just revealing her face now. And the face I'm seeing is no sweet, helpful face but rather of a wicked and wolfy one. How she remained hidden from the world is a question left unanswered. Had the leaders of yore known and turned a blind eye or followed a policy of appeasement. I've to assume with overwhelming reason that at least US, UK and Holland were in the know of these facts. This is because, Holland's secret service had picked up secret documents relating to the Nuclear Black Market involving Pakistan and shared the same with UK, who are subsequently believed to have shared it with US.

Pakistan has been for quite sometime blaming their scientist, AQ Khan who helped it develop all of its nuclear abilities with much contribution from China, for any proliferation thats happened from the country. In fact, Pakistan started of its nuclear program with 50Kgs of enriched Uranium provided by China as a gesture of thanks for helping them build a centrifuge plant in China. This was followed with drawings and plans of nuclear devices and delivery mechanisms, some said to have been personally delivered by AQ Khan to the Pakistani Government along with 3 million dollars granted by the Chinese Government to him.

Pakistan, ex-dictator turned now ex-President Pervez Musharaff, had in a interview confirmed that the 6 billion dollar funding Pakistan has been recieving from US has been used for more purposes than just fight the war on terrorism. He openly admitted in a widely publicised interview that the funds that have been flowing in from the US from the times of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan has not only been used to fight the war against terror, but also to stregthen its army against India.

The HUB can go on if you are interested in discussing more, I would be able to furnish more details on the state of affair of the Asian countries.