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Fission And No Fizz

N-power status put India back a notch on all counts. What saved us from the hole: the economy.

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Finally, have the nukes caused our stock to rise more in the world? India's stock was on the rise for many of the reasons listed above. It is at least plausible to suggest that the N-tests have ensured that we will not get a permanent seat on the UN Security Council for quite some years to come, and that had we not tested we might have been a more serious contender.

Why should N-weapons cause us to be taken more seriously in any case? Will Indian nukes be available to defend anyone except India? Hardly. Will India's nuclear programme be an exportable commodity, and is that why our stock has risen? If the military part of the programme is exported, we will be in seriously bad odour with most of the world. If the civilian part is exported, it'd be a miracle given where our nuclear technology is!

Do N-weapons indicate that India is now a real military and diplomatic player, that it has the will to power finally and can take hard decisions? Is that what has impressed the world? If that's so, then Pakistan is more or less our equal as a military/diplomatic power! Not exactly the company we fantasise about keeping. The reason why India matters more than Pakistan is because of quite other things we bring to the table of international politics. And it is mostly economic.

So here is my view of what has changed in the past 11 years, at least strategically: we have become ever more delusional about ourselves. We think we are more secure than before because we have nuclear weapons, when the truth is that we almost went to war twice—in '99 and '02—after declaring ourselves an N-weapons power! And we think we can strut around the world stage and demand respect because we have nukes, when the truth is—"It's the economy, stupid!"

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