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Agni put to bed 'indefinitely', confirms MoD

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Technical, not political, reasons were behind postponing Agni's test-launch, defence officials claim.

"This news," they said, "has already come out in the international journal Defence News.

A report in a national daily had claimed that Agni, India's intermediate range ballistic missile, would be tried out on Republic Day. However, MoD officials scoff at it, saying Defence News had already published that technical snags like leakage in Agni's fuel boosters had necessitated a postponement of 'at least three years'.

The ministry of external affairs, however, appeared to play it safe by skipping -- and thus avoiding -- comment on the 'indefinite' postponement in its routine briefing today.

Meanwhile, MEA sources pointed out that it was common knowledge that Western countries, led by the United States, were exerting relentless pressure to freeze India's nuclear and missile programmes. "There is nothing novel in it," they said.

The Vajpayee government, they continued, had launched a major diplomatic initiative to counter this pressure - and that was why the prime minister's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra had gone to London to hold talks with British Defence Secretary Robin Cook.

Though professing ignorance about the nature of the discussions between Mishra and Cook, the officials said it was significant that Mishra had recently visited Paris, as had Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Asked to underscore the significance of the Indian diplomatic initiatives, they said India wanted to be recognised as a nuclear weapons state, apart from having a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Thus, while negotiation with P-5 members were on, there had to be some 'give and take'.

The officials hinted that China vehemently protested the reported deployment of missiles by India and urged the four other P-5 countries -- the US, United Kingdom, France and Russia -- to force India back on the crucial issue. It is understood that the Chinese leadership had drawn their attention to India's National Security Council's appointing an expert group on nuclear doctrine. They know that nuclear deterrence can only come when weapons are operational, and such a move by India could well challenge China's hegemony in the regional security environment.

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