The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Roll back nuclear weapons programme’

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Sunday, May 11, 2008
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‘Roll back nuclear weapons programme’

Special Correspondent

The activists observe the 10th anniversary of Pokharn-II nuclear tests

JAIPUR: Activists of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) on Saturday demanded that India and Pakistan roll back their nuclear weapons programme and divert the “colossal funds” wasted on the arms race to development, education and people’s welfare.

The activists, accompanied by a large number of school children, staged a demonstration at Mahatma Gandhi Circle near Rajasthan University here to mark the tenth anniversary of the Pokharn-II nuclear tests and warned that a nuclear war remained a “real and catastrophic possibility” on the Indian subcontinent.

“A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan will not just annihilate crores of lives in both the countries but would also have disastrous global climatic consequences lasting several decades,” said PUCL State president Prem Krishna Sharma.

The demonstrators pledged to work for nuclear disarmament in South Asia and said there should neither be any further nuclear testing in the region nor should the nuclear weapons be inducted or deployed in any country. They said it would be in the interest of peace and justice in the region to stop the arms race and missile tests.

The speakers pointed out that the arms race between India and Pakistan had intensified over the last decade and the defence budget had registered a three-fold increase. India’s defence budget that stood at Rs.41,200 crore in 1998 is of the order of Rs.1,23,535 crore in 2008.

The school children formed a human chain around the Mahatma Gandhi Circle and prepared paper cranes as symbols of peace through origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. They raised slogans such as “Bomb nahin roti chahiye” (we want bread, not bombs) and “Bomb nahin aman chahiye” (let there be peace instead of bombs).

The CNDP is a national network of over 200 organisations, including grassroots groups and mass movements, working for nuclear disarmament in India and the neighbouring countries.

Among others, former Chairperson of Rajasthan Women’s Commission Pawan Surana, PUCL general secretary Kavita Srivastava, former MP Than Singh, Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti secretary Himmat Singh and CNDP representative Jitendra Chahar took part in the demonstration.

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