Pakistan can no longer control terrorism on its soil, believes former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, as terrorism is “hard-wired into Pakistan’s society and polity.”
“I am not so sure that it’s any longer within Pakistan’s capacity to stop terrorism”, he said speaking to a television channel on Saturday.
Sounding a warning note on Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities, Mr. Menon, who served as High Commissioner to Pakistan before he was Foreign Secretary and then the NSA, said that the likelihood of tactical nuclear weapons being used against India has increased, with “younger officers in an Army that is increasingly religiously motivated and less and less professional and that has consistently produced rogue officers and staged coups against its own leaders.”
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According to a release from TV Today’s “To The Point” programme, Mr. Menon said that this, in turn, meant that there was an increased possibility of an “all-out nuclear war when India retaliates against tactical nuclear weapons with massive retaliation of its own.”
However, the former National Security Adviser also hit out at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s suggestion last week that India’s No First Use (NFU) policy should be reconsidered, adding that the Defence Minister doesn’t have a right to voice “personal opinions” on nuclear policy in public “when that opinion contradicts the official policy of the country,” the TV channel added.
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