India's nuclear status out of compulsion: Sonia

New Delhi, Jan 29: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today saidIndia would continue to carry forward its "profound" conviction aboutcommitment to comprehensive universal nuclear disarmament.

"Yes, India has nuclear weapons. This became a strategiccompulsion for us, born out of the failure to persuade the world toabolish nuclear weapons," she said, while inaugurating an InternationalConference on "Peace, Non-Violence and Empowerment" organised by theCongress in commemoration of the centenary of the Satyagraha launchedby Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa.

Referring to the blueprint for comprehensive universal nucleardisarmament presented by her late husband Rajiv Gandhi at the UnitedNations in October 1988, Ms Gandhi said "Just a few days ago, fourinfluential Americans who held very different views while in office,including Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, have drawn attention tohis impassioned plea and called for urgent action."

Quoting the words of the Mahatma in the aftermath of Hiroshima that ''...violence cannot be destroyed by counter-violence...Mankind has to get out of violence only through non-violence,'' Ms Gandhi said ''since then nuclear weapons have become even more of a terrifying reality. In this context, she pointed that the world's nuclear weapon states had more than adequate atomic arsenal to destroy humanity many times over. ''And it is not just clear weapons. We also confront the spectre of chemical and biological weapons.'' ''An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,'' she said, while highlighting that these words of the Mahatma had showed that he was decidedly against the idea that violence was the only answer to violence.

Ms Gandhi said the end of the Cold War had not seen a pandemic of peace and pointed out that the 'growth of nationalism, in the guise of building pride, was stoking prejudice with horrifying consequences.' ''We are today faced with the scourge of terrorism fuelled by religious, political, ethnic or sectarian conflict,'' the Congress President said.

Asserting that in many cases violence was the cry of the oppressed and the expoloited, Ms Gandhi said : ''It is a sad reality that in many instances violence has to be resorted to in order to be heard.'' She said violence provided no solution but instead would lead to untold suffering and atrocities.

In this context, Ms Gandhi said :''While the underlying causes of conflict have to be understood, it does humanity no good to rationalise, let alone romanticise, violence in any way.''

UNI