Washington Post makes another revelation on Prithvi

The Washington Post, which said last week that India had moved its medium-range Prithvi missiles to a site near the Pakistani border, had another revelation on Monday.

Editorially, the daily raises a question: ''Why did India move missiles up to its border with Pakistan?'' and then replies: ''American diplomats quietly tried to get the Indians to undo this apparently unprovoked initiative and were told that there was insufficient storage space back at the production site.''

''It is hard to take that explanation at face value,'' says the newspaper.

The Post says the few Prithvi missiles at issue were moved up without any sort of warheads and without fuel and present no immediate military threat. But, in the single place in the world where two nuclear-ready states have a potentially war-grade political dispute (Kashmir) going, the move is a cause for concern.

The newspaper says American strictures on India's nuclear affairs are commonly taken in New Delhi as evidence of a conspiracy to assert American hegemony and to keep India from fulfilling its destiny. This is imaginative and far-fetched and lends itself to shrillness, it adds.

In fact, what American policy seeks to encourage in South Asia is concentration on domestic growth.

In support of its argument, the newspaper quotes a recent statement by President Bill Clinton who went out of his way to express appreciation of India's growth.

The President had said, ''In not very long, it will be bigger than China.'' This process, he said, has created new opportunities for India's membership in all kinds of things in the future and for partnerships.

''Here lies a vista that can only be clouded by nuclear gestures. It is not too late for the Indians to move back the missiles,'' the Post adds, telling Pakistan not to rush toward any sort of symbolic response.

UNI

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