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Prithvi Deployment

Delhi NAVBHARAT TIMES
5 May 95 p 6

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[FBIS Translated Text] The immediate strategic deployment of the surface-to-surface ballistic `Prithvi' missile with a striking range of up to 250 km has been stressed not be a defense expert or a statesman or politician but by the parliament's Permanent Committee Constituted To Review the Working of our Defense Ministry. Since this permanent committee has representatives from all the political parties, its recommendations should be deemed to be the consensus opinion of the entire nation that the `Prithvi' must be deployed immediately. What is really amazing is that our government is paying so much attention to the U.S. insistence on this matter, which involves extremely sensitive national security issues.

Now since a parliamentary forum has given this advice, it is hoped that the government will clear all doubts regarding development of the missile by issuing a categorical statement. The government of India must openly declare that to safeguard our borders and convince our enemy that attacking India is fraught with deadly dangers, deployment of `Prithvi' missile is essential for India's security consideration.

It is also essential because Pakistan has already deployed the M-11 series ballistic missile it bought from China. The Defense Ministry itself admitted this fact while giving the information to the Parliamentary Committee. Not only by deploying these Chinese missiles, M-11, with a striking range of nearly 300 km but by also deploying its own surface-to-surface Hatf-1 and Hatf-2 missiles with a striking range of 70-150 kilometers, Pakistan has created a severe danger to the border region of India.

Although just three days ago the prime minister assured the House that India would not wilt under any pressure regarding the deployment of these Prithvi missiles, and it appears that India may deploy Prithvi missiles soon, the question is why must we forget about our `Agni' missiles? Our defense scientists toiled for long years to develop this missile with a striking range of nearly 2,500 km. However, it appears the constant U.S. pressure made India stop work on the Agni missile after declaring it to be a missile created only to demonstrate the technology used in it. Even the parliamentary committee made no mention about this missile in its report. If after three successful test flights of Agni we shelve the program midway and do nothing after all these years, we may lose our future capacity even to reach this stage again. Despite the end of the cold war we have no indication to conclude that in the near future India will face no strategic threats. On the contrary, there is every possibility of threats to our security growing more severe. Had the parliamentary permanent committee given advice to the government about the deployment of the `Agni' missile, the government would have felt a moral pressure to realize that deploying only the Prithvi missile was not enough.

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