But he is not a soldier, that's why I've never heard him favoring military action against Pakis. Military personnel in RAW also operates in Pakistan
OTOH we have retd military commanders and even serving Gen clearly favors the overt strikes. Recently Air chief made such statement.
If you know Gen P N Hoon (Dogra regt) he openly advocates chocking Paki river, dump IWT and military action against Pakis.
Whenever we have succeeded against Pakis its only by military because Paki's don't give Rat A about their civilians killed by RAW of by Army as terrorists.
Oh yes. But the point is that our retaliation should not and is most likely not going to be unidimensional. We'll need both covert and overt actions- As Gen Hoon and Gen VK Singh have advocated, there ARE options.
But to hit the TSPA where it hurts them the most. Pakjabi heartland, GHQ, Pindi and their senior
afsaraan will require covert capabilities.
Please remember, if some armed forces personnel are advocating robust overt response, we had one Gen. Bikram Singh who wound down the TSD and the treatment meted out to those officers is well known. Then we have retired officers participating in Track
thoo.
Our armed forces were consulted on the likelihood of a strong response after 2008. By most reports, armed forces came back with the response that we were NOT adequately prepared. This was less than 7 years after
Parakram, so one can imagine the extend of deterioration in capabilities despite the much vaunted "Cold start" announced in 2004!!!
I reiterate- in a cloak and dagger game, a dagger is no less important than a sword. We need BOTH at the moment. Our response MUST consist of both.