http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?mador=14&datee=06/16/00&id=82216
India's visiting strongman wants to
expand nuclear cooperation with Israel
By Yossi Melman
Ha'aretz, Friday, June
16, 2000
The task of hosting India's Minister of the Interior fell
on the shoulders of Shimon Peres, Minister of Regional
Development, ostensibly because Public Security Minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami is tied up in final status talks with the
Palestinians.
But the choice of Peres contained more than a touch of
coincidental symbolism. The Indian and Israeli ministers
each are considered the architects of their nation's nuclear
power.
Indian Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani arrived on
Wednesday and met Peres at the residence of India's
ambassador in Herzliya Pituach.
On his first day he also managed to meet Mossad head
Ephraim Halevi, and the head of the Shin Bet security
service, Avi Dichter. Today he will see Prime Minister
Barak.
Not every visiting interior minister managed to meet
immediately (if ever) the prime minister and the top brass
of Israel's secret services. This easily illustrated the
great importance of the visit - but why?
It comes from a combination of factors - Advani's special
status at home, and the strategic alliance that increasingly
has emerged between the two states, which renewed diplomatic
ties in 1994 after the Oslo agreements. Since then the
relationship has blossomed.
India is Israel's third largest export market (after
China and Turkey) for arms and defense equipment - sales
amount to half a billion dollars and there are programs for
additional initiatives.
Scientists involved in developing India's nuclear arms
program visited Israel and included A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
science adviser to the prime minister. Advani is the leader
of the ruling BJP (Bhartiya Janata) party. The Interior
Ministry is considered the second post in the government
after the prime minister - because of India's vast size (3
million sq.km. and a population of one billion), the
ministry commands gigantic budgets and runs the police and
security services.
The heads of these forces arrived with Advani and will
meet for talks with their counterparts from Israel's police,
Mossad and Army Intelligence.
As if this weren't enough, Advani enjoys the status of
government "strong man." Fierce international opposition and
domestic fears at home prevented him from becoming prime
minister when his party vanquished the Congress Party in the
1996 elections. Advani stepped aside and his fellow party
member Atal Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister.
Fear of Advani and the BJP derives from their world view
- hardline (Hindu) religious nationalism. The party and its
leaders accumulated power and public support in the early
1990s after pledging to rebuild a Hindu temple in an area
wracked by conflict with Moslems. The party philosophy is
characterized by a religious devotion, crude nationalism,
hostility to the Moslem neighbor-enemy Pakistan, and
bolstering military power with a nuclear option.
In May 1998, the government of Vajpayee and Advani rocked
the world with three nuclear tests - one of them of the
strength of a hydrogen bomb. This set off a chain reaction
in which Pakistan responded with its first tests and openly
declared itself a nuclear power.
A clear indication of his ideology and Weltanschauung was
audible in an interview with Advani. Unlike other visiting
leaders, he did not hesitate to express his views openly and
bluntly, even on such a sensitive matter as nuclear
cooperation. "Yes," he said "I am in favor of cooperating
with Israel in all areas, especially the nuclear field, and
this should be strengthened." (His aides, bidding to play
down the startling impression this statement might impart
hastened to emphasize that he was not planning to visit
Israel's nuclear reactor at Dimona.)
Asked about past reports that the two countries had drawn
up a joint plan to take out Pakistan's nuclear sites, the
minister said no. "India has no offensive plans and nuclear
cooperation with Israel is not aimed against any other
state.
