By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Days ahead of the crucial meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to grant a waiver to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal, a former senior army officer has said India should not accept any condition which compromises on the issue of minimum nuclear deterrence.
“As a global power, we must possess a nuclear weapons capability that is sufficient to act as a deterrent to all other nuclear weapon states.
“What does it translate into? Very simply stated we should be able to absorb a first strike and yet retain the capability to strike back with our residual capability in a manner that makes the costs to the attacker unacceptable,” Lt Gen Vinay Shankar said.
He said this was the minimum capability India must seek, and it should “not accept the imposition of terms that could cause us to accept compromises on this issue.” In an article in the forthcoming issue of ‘Indian Defence Review’, the former general sought a reappraisal of India’s nuclear doctrine and lamented that formulation of defence strategy and the oversight of India’s defence preparedness “has never been given sufficient importance.”
The article came as top government and UPA leaders held deliberations on a revised draft prepared by the US for consideration of the Nuclear Suppliers Group at its meeting on September 4-5.
Referring to the structures for national security management, the former army officer said while precedents were set in the first decade after independence, since then “no Prime Minister or Defence Minister has had the confidence or the inclination to bring about meaningful changes in the management of national security.”