NEW DELHI, June 19: Nuclear deterrence kept India and Pakistan from going to war, India’s President-in-waiting and author of the country’s “missile doctrine”, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, said on Wednesday, apparently unmindful of the fact that he had just endorsed President Pervez Musharraf’s controversial perspective on the issue.

Reaffirming India’s stated nuclear doctrine of ‘no first use,’ Kalam said that if India and Pakistan did not have nuclear weapons there would have been a war.

“Even the recent warfare would have seen that. Why it did not take place? If we did not have nuclear weapons it would have taken place. Do you understand that? This nuclear deterrent on both sides has helped not to engage in a big war and to avoid the nuclear war,” said Kalam.

There was no official comment on Kalam’s first news conference, although analysts said he had embarrassed the lobby that had promptly slammed Gen Musharraf’s remarks on the issue.

Gen Musharraf said on Monday that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal had brought “strategic balance” to South Asia and had prevented India from starting a “limited war”.

“Today’s heightened international concerns of a nuclear conflict in South Asia, and the hesitation, frustration and inability of India to attack Pakistan or conduct a so-called limited war, bear ample testimony to the fact that strategic balance exists in South Asia,” Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying.

The Pakistani president’s comments invited a summary criticism from India of Pakistani “nuclear blackmail”.

“The international community should not ignore such continued manifestations of Pakistani irresponsibility, loose talk and undiluted hostility towards India and the continued concoction of doomsday theory to justify Pakistan’s use of nuclear blackmail,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Kalam, a self-styled nuclear hawk, has been supported by all major parties for the presidency except the leftist groups who have fielded a woman doctor and a freedom struggle veteran.

Captain Lakshmi Sehgal had marched with Subhash Chandra Bose as the head of the women’s unit of his Azad Hind Fauj.

Anti-nuclear peace activist Achin Vanaik said while the easing of the standoff was welcome, no time should be lost now to take measures against any future nuclear adventurism or even a highly possible nuclear accident by both sides.

“These measures should not however be seen as a substitute to nuclear disarmament, which is the only way of dispelling the fear of a holocaust that would otherwise continue to haunt the region,” Vanaik said.—J.N