THE negative effects of America’s generous nuclear deal with India have now surfaced, with a defence publication suggesting a significant increase in New Delhi’s ability to add to its nuclear arsenal. A report by IHS Jane’s Intelligence Review says that the covert uranium hexafluoride plant at Mysore will enable India to produce enriched uranium in excess of that required for the nuclear submarine fleet it is building. In fact, the enriched uranium available would be 160kg a year. This amount is double the quantity the country reportedly needs for its nuclear fleet. The “potential use” of the excess uranium, IHS Jane’s says, could involve the production of thermonuclear weapons for India’s land-based missiles. This would give it a further nuclear edge over Pakistan.

The fears expressed by Islamabad when the Bush administration was planning the nuclear deal with India appear to have been well-founded, for Pakistan had pointed out that the deal between the US and India for ‘civilian’ use of nuclear energy would add to New Delhi’s military capability. Ignoring Pakistan’s protests, Washington had refused to enter into a similar agreement with Islamabad. The most damaging part of the 2008 deal was that it exempted India’s military nuclear facilities, like the Mysore plant, from inspection by the IAEA. This policy by the superpower and the UN’s atomic watchdog body is in sharp contrast to their attitude towards Iran, on which the US slapped sanctions and whose nuclear facilities are regularly monitored by the IAEA. Pakistan is also under pressure from the US-led West to sign the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. No doubt, Pakistan should consider signing the treaty for the global objective of curbing the production of fissile material — even if India has a bigger stock of weapons-grade material. However, it is equally incumbent on the West to review its own discriminatory approach which has allowed India to gain the upper hand in nuclear prowess, especially in view of the tensions that prevail between the two nuclear-armed rivals in South Asia.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2014