This repudiated Shastri's policy preferences, who, as a Gandhian, showed a strong moral revulsion to building nuclear weapons, and did not wish to increase defence spending during the nation's ongoing food crisis. Shastri sought British assistance in making more objective cost estimates. In a November 1964 All India Congress Committee meeting, he disputed Bhabha's numbers, arguing that the production of a single nuclear bomb would cost Rs 400 to 500 million, more than two hundred times Bhabha's estimate. In a remark likely aimed at Bhabha's All India Radio broadcast, Shastri added that "scientists should realise that it was the responsibility of the Government to defend the country and adopt appropriate measures". Beyond economic considerations, he warned that with the development of an initial weapons capability, India "could not be content with one or two bombs. The spirit of competition was bound to capture her". As "the majority of speakers [had come] out strongly and frankly in favour of India manufacturing atom bombs" at the meeting, the Hindustan Times called Shastri's successful opposing address "nothing short of a miracle". After Shastri's address, Bhabha clarified that his figures came from an American study on "the peaceful uses of atomic explosions" for civil engineering projects, but maintained that nuclear explosive power could be cost-effective.