Exposing hypocrisy at 10

Yesterday night’s episode of “Tonight @ 10″, on CNBC TV18, discussed about whether Pokharan-II had been productive for India’s interests in the long run. The guests on the show were Bharat Karnad, Rajmohan Gandhi and Praful Bidwai. The host, as usual, was Karan Thapar.

After 30 minutes of discussion, Thapar asked the panel for their concluding comments on whether they felt India should go in for nuclear disarmament. Bharat Karnad was very forceful in refuting the need for any nuclear disarmament by India. Praful Bidwai was hopeful that his beloved UPA government would deliver on their promise of unilateral de-nuclearization (which was quite naive given the recent Indo-US nuclear pact which confers a de facto nuclear power status on India). Rajmohan Gandhi’s stand was baffling to say the least. He was all for nuclear disarmament… but only if Pakistan chose to do the same. And this was after he had passionately argued that having nuclear weapons does not necessarily grant us power, superiority or respect. When Karan Thapar pointed out this contradiction of sorts, Gandhi floundered, exposing the illogic of his arguments!

Not quite ‘Hard Talk’ with Tim Sebastian, but not too bad either!