United Press International,
WASHINGTON, DC: The Agni III ICBM, the pride of India`s strategic deterrent force, has been shot down before it could even conduct its first test flight. Why did the Indian government pull the plug?
The ambitious rail and road-mobile Agni III was the pride of the Indian strategic missile program and was designed to have a range of at least 2,000 miles, giving it the capability of reaching almost all of China with nuclear weapons.
Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee said May 16, 'As responsible members of the international community, we want to keep our international commitments on non-proliferation.' Those comments certainly suggested that U.S. pressure had been behind the decision not to test the new ICBM. And many analysts came to that conclusion.
'The United States has always been very suspicious about India`s Agni program, and in 1994 persuaded it to suspend testing of (earlier, shorter-range versions of) the missile after three test flights,' a report in Asia Times Online said on May 25. 'The U.S.-backed Missile Technology Control Regime seeks to prevent the proliferation of missiles capable of delivering a 1,100-pound payload over distances of more than 180 miles.'
But the Indian government denied that U.S. pressure had anything to do with their decision. And there is good reason to believe their denials.
The Bush administration remains gung-ho about its developing strategic relationship with India. If anything, administration hawks led by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and their advisers would welcome the test flight of the Agni III. In their eyes, it would put India on the strategic map and give it far more credibility as a potential threat and counterweight to China on the continent of Asia.
Democratic Party heavyweights and potential presidential contenders have been notable by their silence on the issue, and by their failure to jump on the anti-proliferation bandwagon to oppose it.
The problem for the pro-India Bush administration hawks is that no major leaders in New Delhi — in either the ruling UPA-Congress alliance or the main Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party opposition — want to play the role Washington strategists have dreamed up for them. India`s relations with China were dramatically warming up even in the last year of the old BJP-led coalition in 2003-4 under then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the trend has only intensified under his successor Manmohan Singh.
To Read the Full Article, Click Here
