Tracking Number: 325468
Title: "Indian and Pakistani Publics Widely Back Nuclear Weapons Option." Support for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is facing widening opposition in the area. (M-33-93). (940204)
Title: "Indian Public Opinion Backs Economic Liberalization, Multinational Investment." The urban Indian public widely favors foreign investment in India and supports the
government's policy of economic liberalization undertaken to open the Indian economy to foreign investments. (M-29-94). (940204)
Author: EL ASSAL, ELAINE
Date: 19940204
Text:
*AMP505
02/04/94
OFFICE OF RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS (1,140) RECENT PUBLIC OPINION FINDINGS Below are the highlights of some recent Office of Research papers dealing with Indian views on nuclear weapons and economics.
INDIAN AND PAKISTANI PUBLICS WIDELY BACK NUCLEAR WEAPONS OPTION CIA Director James Woolsey warned Congress in July, 1993 that, "The arms race between India and Pakistan poses perhaps the most probable prospect for future use of ... nuclear weapons." Surveys obtained by USIA from both countries suggest that U.S. policy must consider wide public support there for the acquisition of nuclear arms.
-- In October 1993, a majority of urban Indian college graduates (and half of the less educated) cited disagreement over nuclear proliferation as a leading source of strain in Indo-U.S. relations. Urban Indian majorities have favored their country's developing nuclear weapons in polls since 1974. Pakistanis have also widely backed a Pakistani nuclear weapons program in polls since the early 1980's. Moreover, polls show the Pakistani urban public widely opposed to accepting U.S. aid tied to nuclear weapons restrictions.
-- The urban Indian public narrowly agreed in October 1992 that even if India has nuclear weapons, it should never use them.
Yet half of urban Pakistanis have said (in 1987 and 1990) that India would use nuclear arms in a war against Pakistan. At the same time, a majority of Pakistanis rejected mutual denuclearization with India.
-- The Indian public's reactions to the NPT have varied:
from narrow opposition in the late 1980's, to narrow support in 1990 and 1992 after perceptions of Indo-Pak ties improved briefly, to widening opposition in the latest polls (see Figure 1).
-- As of last year, most Indians felt that China's nuclear program should be as or even more important than Pakistan's in shaping India's nuclear policy.
red by: Elaine El Assal, R/NA M-33-93 INDIAN PUBLIC OPINION BACKS ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION, MULTINATIONAL INVESTMENT
This paper shows that the urban Indian public widely favors foreign investment in India and supports Prime Minister Rao's policy of economic liberalization undertaken to open the Indian economy to foreign investors. These findings document a significant change in the country's economic orientation away from the ideologies of economic self-sufficiency and Nehruvian socialism which guided India's economy for decades.
-- Urban Indian college graduates widely (82%) back Prime Minister Rao's policies of economic reform to encourage foreign investment in India. The plurality (48%) are satisfied with the pace of economic reform. The less-educated show the same pattern of views as the better-educated on these and other issues, except for a higher proportion "no answer" responses.
-- The elites widely (79%) back multinational corporations setting up business in India. Half (50%), however, would restrict foreign investment in consumer goods but not in high technology areas.
-- On the related question of foreign economic assistance, most (84%) see a need for such assistance. From a list of countries not including Russia, the elites named Japan (43%) and the U.S. (41%) as providing the most economic assistance to India. But they more often say economic assistance from Japan (65%) is very important for India than say this for the U.S. (56%).
red by: Elaine El Assal M-29-94 NNNN
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