PM Modi's vow to avenge Uri won't remain just words: Manohar Parrikar
NEW DELHI: Indicating a hardening of resolve within the government, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that PM Narendra Modi's promise+ to punish those behind the Uri terror attack would not remain words. "Sometimes I can have a knee jerk reaction too. But we are a responsible nation," he said. India would not be deterred by Pakistan brandishing nuclear weapons, he added.
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"...I don't think the PM's initial words that `those responsible will be punished' will go as a mere statement. How to punish, that is for us to work out," Parrikar said at an event here.
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Parrikar's comments and meetings of the CCS and the BJP core group point to intense deliberations in the government and party and indicate all options, indicating military ones, are open as it is being felt that inaction will only convince Pakistan that it can inflict deeper cuts in its proxy war against India. For a de-escalation, Pakistan would have to offer evidence of some serious and credible course corrections.
The government will not be averse to a diplomatic outcome if India's intent to use force results in some clear gains, but the BJP brass is also clear that there must a demonstrable result in light of public anger running deep. The Uri incident — a near repeat of the attack on the Pathankot air force base+ — is seen as a challenge to Modi's leadership as also BJP's campaign on nationalist issues after the JNU sedition case and recent "tiranga yatras". {They key word is *result* and not *action* though it might mean action given how loose our English usage is}
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Parrikar dismissed Pakistan's oft-repeated threat of being fully-prepared to use its 60-km Nasr missiles with subkiloton plutonium warheads as a counter to India's conventional military superiority. "Empty vessels (like Pakistan) makes bigger noise. This country (India) is a very responsible power, but that does not mean I will sleep over this kind of terrorism that is being pushed from across. How do I do it is entirely for the government under the PM to decide," he said. This comes after the Indian security establishment has provided the government with a variety of punitive but limited actions possible against Pakistan without actually going to war, which range from "surgical strikes" to "cross-border raids" by special forces or ghatak platoons of infantry battalions.
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y'day's newshour discussion on TN was very interesting. Gen. Bikram Singh and G. Parthasarthy kept repeating their confidence, careful not to reveal much, in the resolve seen with the new dispensation, the latter esp. assuring with his reputation on it.
@Navnit Kundu