Concern as India explodes A-bomb

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33538, 20 May 1974, Page 13

Concern as India explodes A-bomb

'N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW DELHI, May 19. India's successful explosion of an underground nuclear bomb is being viewed with concern in neighbouring Pakistan, but has won widespread approval at home. Observers say that the explosion of a plutonium device (yesterday, which makes India the sixth member of the nuclear lelub of great Powers, is certain to transmit a euphoric wave of nationalism across the counlrv.

I i Already, applause for jjthe achievement has come from the bitterest I opponents of the Prime Minister (Mrs Gandhi), opponents such as the Right-wing Hindu nationalist Jan Sangh

Party and the leaders of the Opposition Congress Party.

I Mrs Gandhi said that 'there was “nothing to be excited about” in the pre-dawn blast, in an undisclosed desert area in Western India. The explosion was of an equivalent to between 10 and 15 kilotonnes of T.N.T. Mrs Gandhi reiterated several times last night that the purpose of the explosion was peaceful and that India remained strongly opposed to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. In Islamabad, a spokesman at. the Foreign Ministry said ithat India's nuclear explosion must be viewed with concern, especially by neigh- ; bouring countries, despite Indian contentions that the test had been carried out for peaceful purposes.

: The blast had also dealt a death blow to the nuclear

I non-proliferation treaty, he [said. The Pakistani Prime Minister (Mr Bhutto), who once said that if India went nuclear, Pakistan would also produce a bomb, “even if we have to eat grass" is to issue a statement later today. Despite all the Indian statements, doubts about India's ultimate nuclear ambitions are certain to continue around the world. The country has two atomic power’stations already functioning and work is in progress on two more. It has rich deposits of unranium. The chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Mr Homi Sethna. said last inight that the test had been ;carried out to test the eraitering effect and to see how far it helped to crush rock jin the sub-structure of the i earth.