ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Fernandes rules out differences with Abdul Kalam over signing CTBT

Defence Minister George Fernandes said today that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty could not be signed in its present discriminatory form as it was much more than mere collection of adequate data for future reference and use.

Speaking to reporters informally after giving away the national awards for excellence in indigenisation of defence stores for 1996-97, the defence minister said there were a ''whole lot'' of other issues involved and were being currently discussed between the Indian and US interlocutors.

The defence minister, who was asked to comment on A P J Abdul Kalam's statement that no further nuclear tests were necessary and subscribing to the CTBT would not create difficulties for India's nuclear status, refused to do so directly but clarified that there was no contradiction whatsoever between what he was saying and what Kalam had said.

''He (Kalam) spoke for the scientists and reassured them that they need not worry, but the CTBT is not just the data, a whole lot of issues are there which are being discussed just now,'' the defence minister said.

Kalam had on Monday ruled out any roll-back on India's status as a nuclear weapon state and said signing the CTBT at this juncture would not create difficulties for its nuclear status. He said he and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr R Chidambaram had reviewed and discussed the post Pokhran-II scenario in detail and from the scientific and technical angle they felt no further nuclear tests were necessary.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report