India has a "Hindu bomb". Pakistan has an "Islamic bomb". India has conducted six nuclear tests in all. Pakistan matched that number. So, should the people of the two nations be dancing in the streets? Or should they hang their heads in shame that their governments still think "strength" lies at the end of a nuclear-tipped missile?
Why have India and now Pakistan taken the low road to nuclear proliferation? The Indian government claims that it was "threatened" by its two neighbours - Pakistan and China. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee says the tests were conducted to "silence our enemies and to show our strength".
Vajpayee did temporarily silence his critics in India. But they have found a voice again and are being heard. The so-called euphoria depicted in the media is fast dissipating as Indians understand the full import of the government's decision to go nuclear.
And, as for demonstrating strength, India's actions have ensured that Pakistan also becomes a declared nuclear state. Thus, in a matter of days, the strategic arms scenario in South Asia has been altered precipitously.
Both countries blame each other for pushing them to test. Together, they blame the United States and western powers for setting the agenda in global politics where power and nuclear deterrence are seen as being commensurate. But does it really matter now who should hang for this? Is it necessary to determine whether India was provoked and whether Pakistan had to give a "befitting reply to any misadventure by the enemy", in the words of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif?
The more relevant question is: Who will pay the bill? Regardless of the impact of economic sanctions on either country, such a dramatic escalation in defence-related expenditure will cut deep. India already spends more than $10 billion a year on defence, twice as much as on education, health and social services put together. Additional defence costs would add at a minimum another billion.
Meanwhile, literacy rates in India hover around 51 per cent and per capita income is around $300 per year, inexcusable in a country with an impressive industrial base and an enormous pool of trained people. The bombs will not feed starving babies. On the contrary, they will snatch the bread out of their mouths.
The tragedy of this escalation of the nuclear war game in the region is greater than just the obvious
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