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India should not succumb to any pressure: Pant

India did not follow up the 1974 nuclear test for 24 years because of pressure by some ''well meaning friends,'' said National Security Council Task Force Chairman K C Pant.

''Many questions are being asked. Some ask why we did not follow up the 1974 nuclear tests for 24 years. Some ask why we did not throw out the aggressor from Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. Some question the strategic Haji Pir being given away after having won it. Some even ask why we did not use the air force in the 1962 war against the Chinese,'' the former defence minister said after releasing a book on nuclear India.

He said the ''well meaning friends'' while ''helping'' India looked at events in the light of their own interests and put pressure on India which did not coincide hundred per cent with India's interests. ''We have to be careful. We can't answer all these questions.'' He, however, did not identify the ''well meaning friends.''

''It is their duty to put pressure on us and it is our duty to look to our own national interests. And if we succumb, we lose their respect,'' he said.

Talking about the pressures on India following the Pokhran nuclear tests Pant said India was aware of the sanctions following the tests and the sanctions would have been imposed anyway because of our stand against the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

He asserted that it was time now to preserve the gains achieved following the tests and India should be careful at the negotiating table with Pakistan. ''All matters should be resolved bilaterally,'' he added.

UNI

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