What are the main features of India's Nuclear Doctrine? Should the No first use policy be amended in future? Critically Analyse (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
Main Features of India's Nuclear Doctrine
· Building and maintaining a credible minimum deterrent.
· A No First Use posture; nuclear weapons to be used only in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian territory or on Indian forces anywhere.
· Nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage.
· Nuclear retaliatory attacks to be authorized only by civilian political leadership through the Nuclear Command Authority.
· Non use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.
· India to retain option of retaliating with nuclear weapons in the event of a major attack against it with biological or chemical weapons.
· Continued commitment to goal of nuclear weapon free world, through global, verifiable and non-discriminatory disarmament.
Issue over no First Use policy
Criticisms of No First Use
· The no-first-use (NFU) posture is a liability in serious war planning.
· NFU may result in unacceptably high initial casualties and damage to Indian population, cities, and infrastructure.
· Massive retaliation is not credible, especially against a tactical nuclear strike on Indian forces on the adversary's own territory.
· It would be morally wrong for the leadership to place the population "in peril".
· An elaborate and costly ballistic missile defense (BMD) system would be required to defend against a first strike.
Positives of No First Use
· India's strategic restraint posture has provided major gains internationally, including the lifting of economic sanctions and the removal of technology denial regimes, civil nuclear cooperation agreements, and accommodation in multilateral nuclear export control regimes.
· Complex command and control and sophisticated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems are necessary for a first-use posture.
· A first-use posture will deny India the opportunity to engage in conventional warfare below the nuclear threshold.
· It may lead to arms race and destabilization of the entire south Asia.
Deepanshi Singh 5 years
The main features of the Indian Nuclear doctrine adopted in 2003 are credible minimum deterrence and no first use.However the government reserves the right for massive retaliation in case any country strikes India with nuclear weapons.
This builds an image as a responsble nuclear power and sets high nuclear threshold especially in a volatile region.
The no first use policy should not be amended:
1. India is surrounded by Pakistan and China which are also nuclear powers.The region is highly volatile.
2.This can give an excuse to China for amending its no first use policy as well against US,Russia or India as well.
3. This can be misread by Pakistan and lead to far reaching consequences.The nuclear weapons are kept in demated posture in both India and Pakistan in order to avoid their usage by mistake.This could change to ready deterent posture.
4.There is a chance of nuclear terrorism if these weapons fall into the hands of the non state actors.
5. the nuclear weapons are not war armaments to be used in case of conflict,they are weapons of last resort.
The no first use policy should not be amended and nuclear weapons should be used for deterence. This does not show our weakness but depicts that India is a responsible nuclear power.
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try to add more points on main features of the doctrine. Keep Writing.
Rahul 5 years
Pls review
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good answer. Keep writing.
harsha h prasad 5 years
Please review. thank you
IAS Parliament 5 years
Try restructuring the answer by providing sub-headings, like arguments in favour and against No first use policy, try to underline key points. Keep Writing.
DHARU 5 years
Kindly review!! Thankyou
IAS Parliament 5 years
Good answer. Try to underline key points. Keep Writing.
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