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print version25th Anniversary of the Action Plan for a Nuclear Weapon Free and
Non-Violent World Order
The Tragic Fate of Rajiv Gandhi’s ’Action Plan’
by N.D. JAYAPRAKASH
It is highly unfortunate that the twenty-fifth anniversary of the submission of the ‘Action Plan for a Nuclear Weapon Free and Non-Violent World Order’[1] by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi before the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 09 June 1988 during the Third Special Session Devoted to Disarmament has gone unnoticed in India and elsewhere. Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘Action Plan’ had essentially resurrected the long forgotten ‘McCloy-Zorin Accord on General and Complete Disarmament’ [2], which the UNGA had unanimously adopted as resolution No. A/RES/1722(XVI) on 20 December 1961. The ‘Action Plan’ had encapsulated the consistent and persistent positions that India had espoused in the cause of disarmament & world peace before the UN and other international fora ever since 1947. It also represented the views of not only the peace loving people of India and other Third-World nations but also of all people across the world, who were opposed to war and militarism. To understand the significance of the ‘Action Plan’ it is necessary to dwell briefly into the historical circumstances that made it imperative to propose such a plan.
The Hunger for Peace
Rajiv Gandhi’s ‘Action Plan’ marked the zenith of India’s non-aligned foreign policy initiatives. It was not accidental that advancing the cause of peace & disarmament became one of the cornerstones of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which India – along with like-minded nations – had tirelessly strived to build over several decades.
read more at: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/28/the-tragic-fate-of-rajiv-gandhis-action-plan/
