The division between the hawks and doves is stark. Some former diplomats and soldiers say India should act tough. Others advocate caution. But security experts view the issue through a nuanced prism.
There is a fierce and lively debate on in and through the media that India should do a ‘Geronimo’ and enact an EKIA (enemy killed in action) like that the US achieved with the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The division between the hawks and doves is stark. Some former diplomats and soldiers say India should act tough. Others advocate caution. But security experts view the issue through a nuanced prism.
Brajesh Mishra, national security advisor to prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the six years of NDA rule, says, “India should keep out of it. Let the Pakistanis and Americans settle it among themselves.”
Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha differs. “India has two options. Plead with Pakistan which is bound to fall on deaf ears. The other is to take firm action,” he says and cites the Pakistani argument that terrorists are non-state actors and therefore legitimate targets. “There is only one international law. There cannot be two, one for the US and another for India,” he says.
Former Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) chief Hormis Tharakan raises a moot point: “In the US, the law permits the president to order the killing of an enemy in another country. I am not clear whether there is such a legal provision for the Indian prime minister.”
Ajit Doval, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief, is not perturbed. “This does not mean that there is rift in the government or outside. For example the defence ministry, the intelligence agencies and the finance ministry must each state their views in clear and strong terms. They are professionals and they have no axe to grind. The final decision will have to be taken by the PM, made on the base of a diversified information input,” he said.
Radha Kumar, policy analyst and one of the three-member interlocutors on J&K, says, “I do not have a high opinion of India’s capacity to carry out a covert operation.” P.R.Chair of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, says “India cannot ignore the ‘big bosses’ in the global arena.”
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