Katihar (Bihar) [India], November 8 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey on Saturday accused former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of compromising national security for electoral gains, alleging that her government ignored warnings about Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme for 'vote bank politics.'

Speaking to ANI in Katihar, Dubey claimed that had Pakistan not become a nuclear state, it 'would have been destroyed and divided into pieces.'

Referring to an alleged declassified CIA document, he alleged that Indira Gandhi had considered sharing India's nuclear technology with Pakistan after the 1974 test 'for her vote bank politics.'

'Had Pakistan not been a nuclear state, what would its value have been? It would have been destroyed and divided into pieces. In a document released by the CIA in 1974, it is mentioned that when we did the nuclear test, Indira Gandhi wanted to share the technology with Pakistan for her vote bank politics. Congress thinks that the more it raises the slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad', the more Muslim votes it will get. Pawning the nation for Muslim votes is a lifelong standard of the Gandhi family. As a result, India got a neighbour that can never improve...,' Dubey claimed.

Dubey claimed Indira Gandhi stopped a proposed 1982 India-Israel strike on Pakistan's nuclear sites, calling it a decision that 'created today's headache.'

The BJP MP alleged, 'Pakistan started making nuclear bombs in 1980. When this information was revealed, Israel wanted to come together with India and attack Pakistan... But in 1982, Former PM Indira Gandhi asked the military not to take any action. As a result, today, we are facing a headache.'

The remarks come as Former CIA officer Richard Barlow revealed that the proposed joint covert operation by India and Israel to bomb Pakistan's Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s to halt Islamabad's atomic ambition could have 'solved a lot of problems.'

He also called the disapproval of the operation by the then Indian government a 'shame'.

During an interview with ANI, Barlow, a former CIA member who was part of the American intelligence agency as a counter proliferation officer during Pakistan's clandestine nuclear activities in the 1980s, confirmed that he had heard of the reported plan within intelligence circles but was not directly involved, as he was out of government service during that period.

'I was out of government from 1982 until 1985. And I think that may have occurred while I was out of government. I heard about it at some point. But I didn't get my teeth into it because it never happened,' Barlow said.

'It's a shame that Indira [Gandhi] didn't approve it; it would have solved a lot of problems,' he added.

According to reports and declassified accounts, Israel and India allegedly planned a preemptive airstrike on Pakistan's Kahuta uranium enrichment plant -- the core of its nuclear programme -- to prevent Islamabad from developing and proliferating nuclear weapons, particularly to Iran, which is regarded as a grave adversary by Israel. (ANI)