Threat of a nuke war with Pakistan has increased: Shivshankar Menon

Former national security advisor also questions Parrikar's right to air personal views in public

Former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon has said the threat of a nuclear war with Pakistan has increased, but criticised Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for suggesting that India should give up its ‘no first use’ policy. 

He believes the September 29 ‘surgical strikes’, following the Uri terror attack, were inevitable, but disagrees with the Narendra Modi government’s decision to go public with the information.

Menon had played a key role in the India-US civil nuclear deal and was India’s foreign secretary when the 26/11 terror attacks took place in Mumbai in 2008. 

Menon told India Today TV’s Karan Thapar in an interview that he was wrong in advising the then Manmohan Singh government to retaliate after the 26/11 terror attacks. Pranab Mukherjee, then the external affairs minister, had “seemed to agree” with him. While Menon didn’t reveal Singh’s response, India had eventually not retaliated militarily.

On Parrikar, Menon said the defence minister did not have a right to voice his personal opinion on nuclear policy in public, particularly when that opinion contradicted the official policy of the country. 

Menon, the NSA from 2011 to 2014 during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s second term, said Parrikar’s suggestion would not be in India’s strategic interest, as it would increase India’s insecurity against Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons.

Earlier this month, Parrikar had said at a public function that his “personal opinion” was that India should relook at its pledge of ‘No First Use’ (NFU) of nuclear weapons. 

Menon told India Today TV’s Karan Thapar in an interview that he was wrong in advising the then Manmohan Singh government to retaliate after the 26/11 terror attacks. Pranab Mukherjee, then the external affairs minister, had “seemed to agree” with him

On Parrikar, Menon said the defence minister did not have a right to voice his personal opinion on nuclear policy in public

Parrikar said New Delhi should only commit to being a “responsible nuclear state”. In 1998, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had given a unilateral pledge that India would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. Elaborating on his criticism of Parrikar’s comments, Menon said India’s nuclear weapons were no guard and no deterrent against Pakistani terror.

Threatening a nuclear response to a terrorist attack from Pakistan “would be like threatening to kill a mosquito with a shotgun and would be unlikely to be understood by India’s own people, let alone the international community.”