``Now that we have conducted the tests, we should move forward to the stage of making all arrangements and put command, control and guidance systems of nuclear weapons and missiles in place,'' Dixit said in an interview to PTI.

But at the same time, he said, New Delhi should not undertake any forward deployment of missiles and warheads as that would be ``expensive and unnecessarily provocative''.

Asserting the decision of the Vajpayee government to exercise the nuclear option was a ``correct one'', Dixit, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, said New Delhi should have continued testing after the 1974 underground implosion ordered by Indira Gandhi and completed the process.

He described as ``hypocritical'' the statements of former prime ministers H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral that they turneddown proposals from nuclear scientists to undertake the tests as they felt India's capacity should remain hidden.

``The BJP government's decision to carry out the tests could be partisan to the extent that it could have favoured it to a limited point. Indira Gandhi did not get benefit of the decision domestically but the test was a decision in national interest,'' he said.