Sending out a message to Pakistan, India on Wednesday said it wants good relations but not at the cost of its “pride, dignity and self-respect” and that it will ensure that “our enemies” cannot go scot-free as even small incidents of terrorism have to be “treated as war”. Replying to the debate in lok Sabha about the recent terror attack in Pathankot, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar asserted that at any cost India will not tolerate the terror attempts from Pakistan side.
He said till now it has not found through which route the attackers of Pathankot Airbase came but insisted that six terrorists were involved in the attack, amid contention by the NIA that the investigators had found only four bodies.
Parrikar as also Home Minister Rajnath Singh were responding to a debate during which the Government came in for a scathing attack over handling of the Pathankot attack, with the Opposition dubbing as a “critical mistake” the decision to handover the operation to NSG.
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, 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.
Parrikar noted that there are certain organisations acrossthe 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,” Parrikar said, adding “the compromise made earlier was probably one of the reasons as to why we are suffering today.”
In a veiled attack on the previous UPA Government, the Defence Minister said, “I have seen many instances. I do not want to quote more instances. I can quote many instances when military intelligence has been sacrificed at the altar of political goals.”
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.