Fernandes unveils 'limited war' doctrine

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 24. As military tensions with Pakistan continue on the Line of Control in Kashmir, the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, today unveiled the Government's new doctrine on fighting ``limited wars'' with Islamabad.

Addressing an international conference on Asian security here, Mr. Fernandes reassured the international community that India remains committed to a policy of nuclear restraint even as it sharpens its ability to resist Pakistan's nuclear blackmail.

While doing its utmost to prevent the escalation of tensions with Pakistan into a nuclear war, Mr. Fernandes declared that India had shown during the Kargil crisis that ``its forces can fight and win a limited war, at a time and place chosen by the aggressor''.

The Defence Minister was summing up India's post- Kargil security dilemmas vis-a-vis Pakistan and New Delhi's readiness to fight a limited conventional war under the nuclear shadow.

After acquiring nuclear weapons, the military leadership in Pakistan embarked on a course of confrontation with India in the mistaken belief that the latter would be paralysed from an effective response because of the nuclear factor, Mr. Fernandes said.

Reaffirming India's determination to resist such nuclear blackmail, Mr. Fernandes declared India's readiness to fight any limited conventional war imposed on it by Pakistan.

Referring to Pakistan's bid to create military tension on the border and step up cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, Mr. Fernandes said Pakistan has convinced itself that ``under the nuclear umbrella, it would be able to take Kashmir without India being able to punish it in return.''

He added that the belief in Pakistan that ``India would be deterred in any war imposed on it, and will not fight back'' was a serious error of judgment.

Pointing to Pakistan's nuclear threat during the Kargil conflict, the Defence Minister said Islamabad had not understood the ``real meaning of nuclearisation'' in the sub- continent.

India's own reading of the Kargil war, according to Mr. Fernandes, is that an atomic arsenal ``can deter only the use of nuclear weapons, but not all and any war''. He added that under the nuclear shadow, a ``conventional war remained feasible though with definite limitations if escalation across the nuclear threshold was to be avoided''.

Arguing that a conventional war ``has not been made obsolete by nuclear weapons'', Mr. Fernandes said India ``must possess conventional capability of a sufficiently high level in order to lift the nuclear threshold as much as possible''.

Although India's restrained handling of the Kargil crisis was widely appreciated by the international community, the renewed tensions between India and Pakistan have revived international concerns about South Asia as a ``nuclear flashpoint''.

Mr. Fernandes' remarks a few days ago on fighting a limited war have reinforced these concerns; and there is considerable skepticism in the West about the ability of India and Pakistan to contain their conflicts below the nuclear level.

It is in India's interest to elaborate in greater detail, its compulsions in adopting a strategy to fight a limited war and commitments to maintain nuclear restraint.

Equally important, India would have to gear itself to deal with the increased international attention to the Kashmir dispute in the wake of the talk in the sub-continent about a war, limited or otherwise.

For Pakistan has calculated that greater the fears of an impending war in the subcontinent, the more successful it will be in drawing in the international community to intervene in the Kashmir dispute.

Musharraf charge rejected

PTI reports:

India today rejected the Pakistani chief executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf's allegation that Indian troops had recently crossed the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

Brushing aside Gen. Musharraf's remarks that Indians were not refraining from crossing the LoC, a Foreign Office spokesman said, ``it is pointless telling India this. It was Pakistan which had violated the LoC'' during the Kargil conflict.

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