Speaking on the topic `Nuclear India -- Asserting Identity' at a public meeting here organised by Vigil, a public opinion forum, she said, ``There is an attitude of apology (among the Indian administrators) as if we had offended a rich nation or made a mistake (by conducting the tests). We are going from Capital to Capital saying we are willing to sign the CTBT and the FMCT, which is extraordinarily difficult to accept.''

The CTBT in its present form aims at ``disarming the unarmed'', she added.India should not lose sight of its objective namely, not to sign the ``flawed'' Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in seeking to limit ``what is seen as a damage done by the nuclear tests'', she said. India was a partof the world and had to maintain good relations with others, she admitted but said it should not be ``at the cost of our own interest''.

Ghose said the country needed to keep in mind the Pakistan and Chinese angle -- China took umbrage at the tests because its strategy was exposed and its authority challenged, she said. China was keeping the country militarily engaged across the border, she pointed out.

The nation should not be cowed down by the threat of economic sanctions but instead consider them a blessing in disguise, the former envoy said. For a country like India there was no option but to go it alone, she added.

The consequences of a new world order or the `nuclear regime', she felt, were international instability and insecurity for the nuclear have-nots. Though possession of nuclear weapons did not offer an identity to any country, it acted as a credible deterrent, Ghose said.

India should possess the nuclear weapons so long as they remained in the world, she added and was convinced that thefive nuclear powers intended to keep their weapons intact in the foreseeable future.

Therefore, she said, it was ``both logical and inevitable'' for India to conduct the tests.

The nuclear powers were attempting to indefinitely extend the nuclear regime through the extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, she said.

Lashing out at critics of the Pokharan tests, eminent journalist and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie said ``these people are not concerned about India's security''. The country cannot ignore the threat from China which was going ahead with extending its territory across the north-east and had conducted over 15 nuclear tests, he said.