April 28, 1981, Forty Years Ago: War threat

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi made it known today to the members of parliament that she is smelling war in the situation developing as a result of the US arms supplies to Pakistan. She told the MPs consultative committee on Atomic Energy and Space Research that the government’s worry was that “such arms supply is creating a situation where everybody is drifting towards war”. Ever since the US plans to supply sophisticated weapons came to be known, the prime minister and her spokesman have been voicing concern at the US decision. Their main plank for criticism of the US decision has been that it will cause a setback to the process of normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan and also lead to an arms race on the subcontinent.

N-test site

The US government has evidence that both India and Pakistan are doing “significant construction” at sites suitable for nuclear bomb threats, senator Alan Cranston of California said. The statement was the first public word that Pakistan may be readying a test site. Cranston said that US officials “have little doubt” that excavations undertaken by India in the Thar desert are in preparation for burial of a nuclear warhead for an underground test. He also said that the Pakistani site includes a horizontal tunnel into a hillside in the Baluchistan mountains, some 64 kms from the Afghanistan border.

Heavy tax dose

Finance Minister, R Venkataraman declared today that he would not shrink from imposing higher taxes if the failure to realise the Rs 800 crore bearer bonds sale made such an extreme step inevitable. Ruling out any extension of the time-limit for bond sales, Venkataraman said the government had decided to suspend bond sales after the expiry of the last working day on April 30.