I was reading Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian” in which he has a chapter about India’s decision to test nuclear weapons in 1998. Sen’s piece is well reasoned and concludes (rightfully) that the Vajpayee government’s decision was a mistaken one. Sen analyses the decision along two dimensions, ethical and pragmatic. The ethical question is whether it is morally defensible to have nuclear weapons, and as any reasonable person would conclude, the possession of genocidal arms of any kind is dubious (to say the very least). Despite the five big powers’ — U.S, Russia, England, France and China- hypocrisy in this matter, their criminality doesn’t make our decision right.
India’s Nuclear Conundrum
India’s Nuclear Conundrum
India’s Nuclear Conundrum
I was reading Amartya Sen’s “The Argumentative Indian” in which he has a chapter about India’s decision to test nuclear weapons in 1998. Sen’s piece is well reasoned and concludes (rightfully) that the Vajpayee government’s decision was a mistaken one. Sen analyses the decision along two dimensions, ethical and pragmatic. The ethical question is whether it is morally defensible to have nuclear weapons, and as any reasonable person would conclude, the possession of genocidal arms of any kind is dubious (to say the very least). Despite the five big powers’ — U.S, Russia, England, France and China- hypocrisy in this matter, their criminality doesn’t make our decision right.