Consider the following. Thanks to the long-range missiles transferred to Pakistan by North Korea, all major Indian cities today are within the reach of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal. India was aware since the early 1990s that the dangerous nuclear liaison between North Korea and Pakistan fundamentally threatened Indian security. Yet, India has never been willing to publicly criticise North Korea. Was it because of the presumed principle that India should not criticise fellow ‘third world’ countries? Or was it because objecting to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) was a lot easier than criticising those who cheat on it?

For the Indian foreign policy establishment, the domestic political imperative of projecting third world solidarity has often taken precedence over the need to confront those who violate their own international commitments and threaten India’s security. But there is a price to pay for this intellectual laziness that is more obsessed with normative principles than real political trends.

On Monday, the Indian Foreign Office has stated that the North Korean nuclear test “highlights the dangers of clandestine proliferation”. It is fine to raise the alarm bells on illicit nuclear trade. But what is India doing about it? If India sees itself as a big victim of the nuclear nexus between Islamabad and Pyongyang, why is New Delhi not part of the current global mechanism designed precisely to counter clandestine proliferation?

Today all major nations, except China, are members of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which is a multilateral effort to interdict illicit trafficking in nuclear materials. The PSI is based on the recognition that the NPT system has no mechanism to counter clandestine proliferation. Yet, the UPA government has tied itself into knots on the long-overdue decision to join the PSI. If Russia has joined the PSI after initially protesting against it, why is India outside? The government appears frightened to cross the Left which thinks the PSI is not in conformity with international law. One would have assumed that no one but a sophomore would be in awe of “international law”. Instead of seeking great power endorsement to curb on-going illicit trade between North Korea and Pakistan, India has let the touching liberal faith in international law trump the demands of national security.

... contd.