India free to Nuke bomb: Pranab

KOLKATA: India on Monday said that it was free to make a nuclear bomb should it feel it necessary to do so keeping in view the regional geo-political situation and the country's defence requirements.

Addressing a seminar here, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India was free to make a nuclear bomb should the government feel it necessary to do so keeping in view the regional geo-political situation and the country's defence requirements.

"Just as India has the right to make a nuclear bomb, countries who are against it have the right to oppose. Among the 185 countries in the world, there are big powers like the U S and very small countries like Fiji and the Solomon Islands. All are sovereign and have equal rights," he said.

Asserting that the Indo-US nuclear deal would not compromise India's independent foreign policy, Mukherjee said, "our foreign policy is aimed at extending our national interest in the context of the international situation."

He said the deal was aimed at using nuclear science for civilian purposes, he said it was not a military deal

India was, however, following the 'no first strike' policy announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee after the Pokhran tests in 1998. "We continue with this policy because it was announced by a Prime Minister and not by a BJP leader."

Mukherjee said the main purpose of the deal was to obtain the technology for clean energy as it has become necessary to meet the country's growing energy needs in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The deal also enabled India to break the nuclear apartheid, he said, adding, "when I was Defence Minister, I learnt that scientists from the DRDO were not being allowed to attend international seminars on the allegation that they were involved in making the nuclear bomb."