India’s main opposition party the Bharatiya Janata Party has called on the world community to ‘denuclearize’ Pakistan in the light of the increasing terrorist activity there.
“It is necessary to denuclearize Pakistan not just for the safety of South Asia, but Pakistan’s own safety,” Rajiv Pratap Rudy, spokesperson for the BJP said, calling on the international community to do so.
“The recent terrorist events have only made it more pertinent,” Rudy said at the daily briefing of the Party, which was in power in 1998 when India conducted its second nuclear tests.
The call is the most aggressive response from any political outfit or party anywhere in the world to the rising crising in Pakistan.
While Pakistani media discusses the possibility of a US operation targeted at ‘neutralizing’ the country’s nuclear arsenal, the subject is considered an international taboo for governments to speak about. The US government has never addressed the matter.
Pakistan, which gets considerable help from China in its military programs, has one of the fastest growing nuclear weapons stock-pile in the world as it tries to keep pace with its bigger rival and ‘arch enemy’ India.
Increasing attacks in Pakistan, including the recent one at a premier Naval base near Karachi have raised questions about how safe the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are. Most of the weapons are pointed towards India.
BJP’s comments are likely to add fuel to the fire in Pakistan where people are already feeling under attack and violated by foreign powers, especially after the US conducted a unilateral operation to nab and kill Osama bin Laden. Many Pakistanis felt outraged that the US forces based in Afghanistan could simply fly in and conduct a military operation without the knowledge of the Pakistani military or government.
The right of center BJP typically takes a more hardline view of the world than the in-power Congress Party.
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