N-option is always open: Fernandes
(Financial Express - 21/3/98)  

INDIA will not fight shy of going for nuclear weapons or conducting repeated tests of the ,'Agni' ballistic missile, if necessary, to ensure its security, territorial integrity and unity, the .new minister of defence, George Fernandes said on Friday. "If there is a need to take hard decisions we will take them," he said. He was responding to the queries of mediapersons on the BJP-led coalition government's stance on the nuclear issue, and the Agni missile. About testing of nuclear weapons, he said. There is no need to go in for testing of nuclear weapons at this point of time." Asked to react to the criticism of the coalition government's stand on the nuclear option as stated in the National Agenda, the minister said, "There is no need for a reply as what they are saying is their view of our policy." "We did a good job in Pokhran in 1974 when India tested a Nuclear device. The world knows that India has the capacity and capability to make nuclear weapons," Fernandes said.