Bomb on a Bullock Cart

Of all the Asian nations affected by Peking's nuclear explosion, India has the most to fear. Since Red China's humiliating walk through the Himalayas in 1962, the Indians have been obsessed by fear of renewed Communist aggression. Thus, though India was only recently the anti-nuclear Cassandra of the nonaligned world, the nation last week was earnestly debating whether to build A-bombs of its own.

Chief problem for India's nuclear advocates, of course, is their nation's deep emotional attachment to the principles of nonviolence, as practiced by Gandhi and internationally canonized by the late Jawaharlal Nehru. In a speech to students last week, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Nehru's successor, loyally insisted: "We cannot change our conviction because of China's action."

India's scientists, who think differently, are confident that they can explode a nuclear device within 18 months. A Canadian-built reactor is in operation near Bombay, another is under construction, a third is on order.

The only potential obstacle is an Indian pledge to Canada that reactor products--notably the plutonium needed for nuclear weaponry--would be used solely for peaceful purposes. Dr.

Homi J. Bhabha. chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, even maintains that the price is right. In a recent broadcast. Bhabha said that less than $21 million would buy a stockpile of 50 atomic bombs; for an additional $10 million, India could build 50 two-megaton H-bombs. Western experts agree with Bhabha's figures.

Disingenuously, perhaps, many influential Indians argue now that membership in the nuclear club would increase their stature in the eyes of the world. Frank Moraes. astute editor of The Indian Express, reasons that an Indian bomb "would be a moral boost not only for this country but for all the free countries of Asia." And to underline Moraes' contention. The Statesman observed that "only a few weeks ago Ceylon protested against the presence of nuclear-armed U.S.

warships in the Indian Ocean. But in the face of the Chinese outrage, Colombo is eloquently silent." Few Indians, however, seem to realize that a nuclear stockpile would not in itself confer parity with China.

Communist airbases in Tibet are only 500 miles from key Indian targets, while India's northernmost base is 2,500 miles from major Chinese cities.

Asked one skeptic: "What would we use to deliver an atomic bomb? A bullock cart?"

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