Making a strong statement in Parliament, the government said on Wednesday that though it wants good relations with Pakistan, it cannot come at the cost of India’s pride, dignity and self-respect and t
Making a strong statement in Parliament, the government said on Wednesday that though it wants good relations with Pakistan, it cannot come at the cost of India’s pride, dignity and self-respect and that it will ensure that nation’s enemies cannot go scot-free as even small incidents of terrorism have to be “treated as war”.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar, along with home minister Rajnath Singh while replying to a discussion on the Pathankot terror attack in the Lok Sabha, asserted that security has been stepped up on the borders since in the wake of the Pathankot airbase attack.
Though he conceded that till now the government has not found through which route the attackers of the Pathankot airbase came, the defence minister insisted that six terrorists were involved in the attack, amid contention by the NIA that the investigators had found only four bodies.
Earlier, the Opposition, led by the Congress, had launched a scathing attack on the government over its handling of the attack, and described its decision to hand over the operation to National Security Guards (NSG) as a “critical mistake”.
Responding to allegations that there was no coordination within the government, Mr Parikkar asserted that there is good coordination between him and the home minister.
Mr Singh too said that “close and effective” coordination that was needed was there during the Pathankot incident.
When he was reminded that Rajnath Singh had tweeted on January 1 that the operation was over when it was still continuing, Mr Parikkar said “probably there was a small error which was immediately corrected”.
“We totally foiled the terrorists’ attempt to make a big scenario,” he said.
Debunking allegations that the Army was not involved in the decision-making with respect to handling the attack, the defence minister said the Army was in command of the operations.
Since NSG is trained for urban warfare, they were deployed as the Air base had around 3,000 families, he said.
“The incident (Pathankot terrorist attack) took only 43 hours and not 2-3 days and the terrorists were confined in 200x200 zone,” Mr Parrikar said and took a swipe at some members saying that some spoke on the basis of media reports.
The Opposition also questioned as to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lahore stopover had achieved, noting that the terror strike had happened just a few days after that.
In his reply, Mr Singh said India wants good relations with all neighbours but not at the cost of self-respect.
“We want good relations with all our neighbours. We want good relations with Pakistan too, but not at the cost of this country’s pride, dignity and self-respect,” the Home Minister said.
Mr Parrikar noted that there are certain organisations across the border in Pakistan which are making statements and they “should be taught lessons”.
“We are in the process definitely to ensure that our enemies cannot go scot-free,” the Defence Minister said, adding “the compromise made earlier was probably one of the reasons as to why we are suffering today”.
Talking about Pathankot attack, Parrikar said it was “an accumulation of asymmetric war. These are small attacks of weak forces on a stronger force. When the weak forces know themselves that they are not going to succeed in defeating the stronger force... They try to create disturbances and demoralise strong force.”
He then added, “I can assure that the gaps have been filled and we have already security audit of all defence establishments.”
With regard to the criticism over handling of the Pathankot attack, Parrikar said “Army acted properly” and standard operating procedures were followed. “You cannot have a running commentary about such operations on television channels. This puts security forces in danger,” he added.
The Home Minister said while different governments might have different action plans, nobody can say that their strategy is foolproof.
“No one can point finger on any government’s intention when it comes to national security... When all political parties contribute only then we can ensure safety and security of nation,” Mr Singh said.
Responding to questions by some members as to why Punjab was chosen for the attack, Mr Parrikar said it was because security forces have tightened their grip in Jammu and Kashmir.
Giving figures, he said, “I would like to indicate very clearly that the security forces tightening in Jammu and Kashmir has resulted in heat on terrorists and they are trying to shift downwards. Probably, Pathankot is one of the reasons why this has happened.”
He noted that in the last one-and-a-half years, there has been no attack on army installation in J&K.
