Apart from introducing the dreadful nuclear weapons to South Asia, the Indian nuclear tests in 1998 also marked a decisive militarist turn under the ultra-nationalist BJP for the Indian state and polity which has become increasingly undemocratic, exclusivist and violent. Here is an article that Anil Chaudhary, one of the founding members of the CNDP wrote in September 1998 in a Hindi magazine called Namabar.
This NPT Review Conference is on a path to irrelevance, if not outright failure. The overwhelming majority of member states (160) find the evidence from the HINW conferences—including the new evidence about nuclear famine, the impossibility of mounting a medical and humanitarian response to the use of nuclear weapons, and the increasing risk that they will be used—alarming enough to warrant putting nuclear disarmament on a very fast track. A significant subset (84 and climbing) have committed themselves to the Austrian Pledge and are ready to fill the vacuum in leadership.
French Nuclear Safety Authorities reveal EPR’s vulnerability as Modi visits France to advance nuclear purchase. The detected defects have to do with substandard material used in crucial components, the bottom and the lid of the EPR pressure vessel, the very heart of the reactor. These components cannot be repaired once the reactor goes critical.
We are deeply disturbed by media reports that the Indian government has capitulated to aggressive U.S. demands and agreed to a deal that indemnifies American nuclear vendors from the consequences of accidents caused by design defects in their reactors.
The civil suit comes as nuclear arms are increasingly being linked to other pressing international issues, such as the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity and the effort to combat climate change.
