CPI(ML) has opposed the Indo-US Nuke Deal as well as every manifestation of US imperialism; and has also boldly and consistently mobilised people against all kinds of nuclear jingoism.
BOX:
Vinod Mishra on Implications of Pokhran II
In the first place, I wonder where this ultra-nationalist frenzy, this jingoism unleashed through the tests will lead us to? …it has to have its fallout on national politics as well. That is what we witnessed in the wake of the first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974, when just one year after that Emergency was clamped on the country. …how far will this building up of ultra-nationalist frenzy, coupled with the nuclear explosions, tolerate the democratic process that is still there in the country?
I would like to point out that it is not a case of testing a single bomb. As a consequence of a nuclear test a whole nuclear stockpile has to be built up. During the past 30 years a whole project has been going on in the name of peaceful application of atomic power and enormous funds have been allocated under this head in successive budgets, an expenditure that has never been subject to public scrutiny and any kind of accountability. Gradually, a whole structure, a giant bureaucratic-scientific establishment has been built. And now there are attempts to militarise the whole national economy!
(Vinod Mishra, Liberation, July 1998)
The US today has a stock of seven lakh bombs and spends 35 billion dollars every year (or 96 million dollars a day) in maintaining the nuclear establishment there. The total amount spent by US in its nuclear programme in the last half century is around 5.5 trillion dollars. …
The US is an imperialist country and draws a huge surplus through colonial and neo-colonial exploitation from all over the world and hence can bear this amount without many problems. But in the case of USSR (till 1989) which did not enjoy any such advantage, it was becoming gradually impossible to afford such a huge expenditure. And what we have seen is that the huge nuclear stock that they piled up to safeguard socialism from imperialist attacks ultimately proved to be counterproductive and did play a crucial role in dismantling the socialist system itself. It became impossible for a socialist state in the long run to satisfy the voracious need of the nuclear establishment. And in their attempt to do this, they perilously neglected the priority sectors of industry leading to a total distortion of the economy and ultimately to a defeat of socialism.
(Vinod Mishra, Liberation, September 1998)
