THE nuclear tests which have taken place in India are not a moment of madness as many may imagine or claim but the culmination of a policy change by the Indian Government some decades ago, when on the demise of Gandhi his successor Pandit Nehru stated, ''We are no longer a pacifist nation but have become a militarist one''. From that moment until these recent nuclear tests India has now come of age and reached the pinnacle of its militarist policy which now destabilises the whole of the Asian Pacific ring.
In the same era Mr Nehru stated, ''Our country and China have not been at war for a hundred years'' and a former British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, stated, ''We shall defend our frontiers to the Himalayas'', India being part of the Commonwealth.
India has now indicated by its recent actions, and the euphoria being created among its people, that its vast war machine is now ready and it is prepared for any attack from its neighbours - more likely to be China rather than Pakistan, which will lead to global conflict.
Ralph Briggs,
11 New Street, Musselburgh.
May 14.
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