Goodbye To Nuclear Export Controls

Letters to the Editor - The Hindu
September 9, 2008

This is with regard to the editorial titled 'Goodbye To Nuclear Export Controls' on 9/9/08. Mr.William C.Potter bemoans the inability of the non-proliferation 'stalwarts' to resist pressure from the four nuclear weapon states to support the India specific waiver sans any strict conditions. What is disheartening is not the triumph of economic considerations and power politics over nuclear arms control, it is the double standards and the hypocrisy exhibited by the so-called non-proliferation white-knights. Why do these nations display a collective amnesia about an article in the NPT that asks countries to work for universal disarmament? Why didn't these non-proliferation 'stalwarts' call for universal disarmament in the 1995 NPT review conference even after the cold war had ended? Why did they not condemn China's proliferation of nuclear technology to Pakistan? The non-proliferation 'stalwarts' did not have any moral authority to oppose India as they failed to act in any of the above mentioned situations.