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Indians have long taken umbrage over China's standing in the international community, which includes membership in the nuclear club and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Asks A.P. Venkateswaran, a former Foreign Secretary: "Why is China's power -- its huge army and its intercontinental ballistic missiles -- considered absolutely acceptable while India's is not? There's no reason why India should not have military power commensurate with its size, as China does."
Also fueling India's wider ambitions is the desire to alter the common perception, particularly in the West, that it remains a backward nation mired in superstition and squalor. In fact, alongside the impoverished land of beggars and cardboard shacks there has risen a high-tech, postindustrial state led by an army of self-confident and efficient engineers, scientists and military officers. In the southern city of Bangalore, the two exist side by side: women collect tree branches for firewood, while a short distance away, some of India's brightest technicians hunch over an IBM 3090 mainframe computer to design cross sections for the light combat aircraft. The aim of the LCA project is to develop India's own fighter aircraft at a low cost and, potentially, to export the plane to other countries.
The U.S. is deeply involved in the program. General Electric has sold eleven F404 engines to power LCA prototypes, and Allied Signal, Litton and Honeywell are among the front runners in the bid to provide flight control and other sophisticated systems. Reflecting Washington's desire to forge closer ties with India, the U.S. Air Force will provide training, consulting and testing facilities for the LCA. Washington hopes the agreement will render India less dependent on the Soviet Union; New Delhi still relies on Moscow for many of its weapons imports and most of its co-production deals. Says a Pentagon official: "U.S. policy is to help India become self-sufficient in defense technology."
India is considerably less open about its capability to build nuclear bombs, though many analysts believe the country has atomic components on the shelf. One official close to the Prime Minister claims that India can produce a nuclear bomb "overnight," though Gandhi said in 1986 that it would take "maybe longer than . . . a few weeks" for India to deploy A-weapons. In February 1988 India successfully tested the Prithvi, a 150-mile-range ballistic missile that can carry a payload of 2,000 lbs., more than enough for a nuclear warhead.
Despite India's pacifist roots in the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Indians crying "Ban the bomb!" are a minority. "If you are living in a world of nuclear powers, then you must have it ((the bomb))," says Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam, leader of the pronuke lobby.
The diplomatic stakes are high for the U.S., which finds itself caught in a three-way tug-of-war between two allies who distrust each other. New Delhi still resents the pro-Pakistan "tilt" that has marked U.S. policy since the 1971 war. U.S. military aid to Pakistan is cited by Indians as the main reason why they embarked on their own buildup.