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We are prepared: Army chief
By Our Special Correspondent
The Chief of the Army Staff, S. Padmanabhan, addressing a press conference at South Block in New Delhi on Friday. - PTI
NEW DELHI, JAN. 11. The Chief of Army Staff, S. Padmanabhan, today delivered an unequivocally tough message to Pakistan for its continued encouragement of cross-border terrorism and declared that the Army was primed to respond to any task assigned by the Government to combat it.
The Army, he stressed, was fully prepared for a conventional war, if there was sufficient provocation. ``I am a man of peace, but if there is a war they will find out that this man can bite. We shall surely prevail.''
Gen. Padmanabhan clarified that the biggest-ever troop mobilisation was not part of any exercise but an expression of readiness for conflict with a recalcitrant nation if required. The massive deployment on the border was for the better defence of the country. ``This is not an exercise. We don't play soldiers with frontline troops.''
``When two countries mobilise their strength on the borders, it is not normal. The situation can comfortably be described as serious,'' he said at his first formal interaction with the media in a year.
In Gen. Padmanabhan's assessment, a nuclear war seemed improbable given the international situation and the larger geo- political aims of the industrialised countries. Declaring that India possessed the capability of a retaliatory strike, he warned that if any country was ``mad enough'' to initiate a nuclear strike against India, then ``the perpetrator of that particular outrage shall be punished severely.''
He, however, prefaced his remarks by pointing out that the possibility of a nuclear exchange was in the ``realm of the unknown'' and that India had already declared that it would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. International opinion was completely ranged against nuclear exchanges, he said.
A nuclear strike on India, its forces, assets at sea, economic resources and human beings was entirely unacceptable, Gen. Padmanabhan said.
Significantly, the Army chief's views assume importance as they could influence the widely expected address by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, tomorrow. They also reinforce the plain-speaking on terrorism by the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, who is now in Washington.
Expressing dissatisfaction over Islamabad's steps to curb exfiltration by terrorists into Indian territory, he said a lot more would have to be done by restraining them in their home country because there had been no significant diminishing of `jehadi' activity. Though many of the larger camps being run by the Inter-Service Intelligence were at some distance from the border, he was confident that the Army would be able to reach them. But any final decision would have to be taken by the Government.
`Border with China safe'
He did not anticipate any problem on the borders with China by describing the bilateral relationship as being on a ``fairly even keel'' since the Nineties. The signing of the Peace and Tranquillity Treaty followed by military confidence-building measures had defused possibilities of a military face-off. Gen. Padmanabhan said the coming visit of the Chinese Prime Minister would help reinforce peace on the eastern borders ``whatever else may happen''.
The Army chief downplayed reports of China selling military hardware to Pakistan by pointing out that the two countries had always maintained close cooperation in this sector. It was also impossible for the recent supplies of ship-loads of aircraft to redress Pakistan's air imbalance because India's military edge was ``unassailable''.
Asked whether the snapping of STD and ISD links of private PCOs in Jammu and Kashmir had not inconvenienced people, he said ``everything would be done to make it inconvenient to terrorists to pass on their messages''. The well-being of the 1,500 or so PCO operators would be ensured by the Government.
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