India seeks support for Nuclear test ban

By Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI (Reuters): India's coalition government is looking to shore up domestic support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) two years after it carried nuclear explosions and declared itself a nuclear weapons state.

With the tests out of the way and the country assured of a minimum nuclear deterrent, India had little to lose by acceding to the CTBT, officials and experts argued on Sunday.

"My own sense is that the government wants to move on the test ban, be done with it now that they have tested the devices," said C. Raja Mohan, strategic affairs editor at the Hindu newspaper.

India's nuclear tests were followed by tit-fot-tat tests by arch rival and neighbor Pakistan, which also has not signed the treaty.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has announced a debate on the test ban treaty in parliament starting later this month in the hope that it might help soften resistance and help him set at rest opposition fears of buckling under international pressure.

Some of the new-found haste on the CTBT has been blamed by critics on Vajpayee's trip to the United States in September.

The United States slapped sanctions on India as punishment for the nuclear tests, but ties have warmed since the visit of President Bill Clinton in March. Nuclear proliferation, however, remains a key stumbling block.

"It would be nice if he were go to the U.S. with something in the bag, but as time draws near for the visit, it will become more difficult," said Raja Mohan.

"Because then you will have the critics accusing the government of bending over backwards" in trying to appease Washington.

India's main opposition party Congress leads a band of critics who have so far withheld support for the government on the test ban.

"We are not saying we should not sign but we want to know what the hurry is," said K. Natwar Singh, head of the foreign affairs department of the Congress.

Singh said that his party expected the government to lay bare in parliament the logic of acceding to the test ban, particularly after the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify it.

"The CTBT is dead at the moment. Why is India trying to revive it? Why can't we wait until a new administration takes over in (Washington)?"

Indian political parties, including Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, were united in their opposition to the test ban when it opened for signature in 1996.

They said it was discriminatory and aimed at perpetuating the world order into nuclear haves and have-nots.

But the May 1998 nuclear tests changed all that, analysts said.

"You test and you sign. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by signing the treaty," Raja Mohan said.

An Indian signature on the test ban could also help lift India's three-decade-old civilian nuclear energy sector out of the doldrums, another expert said.

"The most logical route would be to open nuclear trade and technology to India in the peaceful sector on the same basis as that conducted by the nuclear weapon states," Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, said.

Nuclear energy accounts for barely two percent of India's power generation and has suffered because of lack of access to foreign technology and finance.

There are 44 nations with varying degrees of nuclear capability that must sign and ratify the CTBT for it to take effect.

The treaty bans all explosions in the environment, whether in the atmosphere, space or underground and regardless of size.