Pranab: Not briefed yet

New Delhi, June 19: Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee created a minor flutter in strategic and diplomatic circles today when he said the Agni III missile will be tested by India “as and when required”.

Mukherjee’s answer to a query from journalists on the sidelines of a naval ceremony this morning can easily send out wrong signals of Delhi’s intent on a day Indian and Pakistani officials began talks for nuclear confidence-building measures.

However, defence officials were at pains to clarify that Mukherjee was not suggesting that an aggressive posture was likely. The defence minister, who wears more than one hat in the United Progressive Alliance government, has not yet found enough time from the political compulsions of coalition formation to be adequately briefed on many delicate military matters such as missile diplomacy.

The Agni III strategic missile has been in the works for more than two years. Its range of 3,000 km would give India the capability to strike the Pakistani and Chinese capitals from silos in the depth.

Last year, its test-firing was postponed twice. The missile is being designed to deliver nuclear warheads.

This month in Bangalore, V.K. Aatre, the scientific adviser to the defence minister, said: “We have started integrating it (Agni III). In such high-end technologies, it is difficult for me to indicate a time (for tests). We are at it. We have not finished all the tests. We are more than three months away (from testing it). But I am planning to do it this year.”

Aatre is likely to brief the defence minister next week.

The defence minister’s statement today that the test will be carried out when required can raise fears of a renewed missile race in the subcontinent. Two weeks ago, Pakistan tested medium-range missiles in an event that the Indian establishment had interpreted as “routine” and not worthy of a “tit for tat”.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation is at the moment actively engaged in preparing for a test of the missile. But its timing and the range of the test will be determined as much by technical necessities as by diplomatic and military perceptions.

No witch-hunt

The defence minister today also ruled out a “witch-hunt” feared by the Opposition and a blanket probe into a succession of defence deals struck by the ministry under his predecessor George Fernandes.

“It is not necessary that with every change of government everything will have to be probed. If there is something specific, if there is something mala fide it will be looked into,” Mukherjee said on the sidelines of the naval function in Delhi.

In the first session of the new Parliament, Mukherjee had issued a suo motu statement that practically absolved the Fernandes-led military establishment for its role in the Kargil war after questions were raised on the timing of using air power during the 1999 conflict. Now, with Mukherjee also unwilling to actively pursue defence deal allegations made by the Congress when it was in the Opposition, the top echelons of the military establishment will breathe easier.

Among the deals on which questions have been raised are the purchase of coffins at a premium, acquisitions made at above-market rates in the wake of the Kargil war and the contract to buy the British Aerospace’s advanced jet trainers that was signed after the general elections were declared.

Mukherjee’s view that all proposals need not be scanned also means that the armed forces can expect faster clearance of pending proposals.