Admiral Arun Prakash (retired) has cautioned people against going on a path that Pakistan's ISI wants Indians to take amid the rising tension between the two neighbours, days after Pakistan-linked terrorists killed 26 tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
An aviator by specialisation, Admiral Prakash was awarded the Vir Chakra while flying with an Indian Air Force (IAF) IAF fighter squadron in the Punjab during the 1971 war.
"... One of the results desired by the ISI and by the Pakistani actors is to cause a huge split in India on religious lines. Hence this business of Hindu-Muslim is going on. They have targeted Hindus, etc. And that has triggered off responses all over the country against Kashmiri students," Admiral Prakash told NDTV, referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
"Now, that is exactly what our Pakistani adversaries want us to do. So, through your medium, may I request the media to hold facts. Yes, and I am a Kashmiri myself. I want to tell you I was born 40 miles away from where you are standing now in Anantnag. So it hurts when I hear Kashmiri students are being beaten up for something that Pakistani terrorists did in India. The media has a big role to play in this by cutting out this nonsense," said the former Chief of the Naval Staff.
He said the Pahalgam terror attack was "just a part of a continuum that has been going on for the last 35-odd years."
"From 1989, the Pakistanis have felt free to cross our border and attack military, civilian targets and so on. Now, the problem here is that if we go back in time, I think our first misstep was to coin the term cross-border terrorism. This possibly was a convenient and soft term, but it gave an escape clause to Pakistan because anything that came across the border, across the International Border or the Line of Control should have been treated as aggression or war," Admiral Prakash said.
In hindsight, he said, India should have started off by saying anything that comes across the LoC or the International Border would be treated as an act of war and we would respond accordingly.
"And thereafter, there should have been a doctrine. We launched surgical strikes and we hoped at that time that they would have beneficial results, act as deterrents, but they should have been accompanied by a clear articulation of our national policy that we will not tolerate any such acts in future and there will be an instant and effective response," Admiral Prakash said.
"We failed to do that. We haven't articulated a doctrine. So I don't know how effective the 2016 and 2019 strikes were and whether they conveyed a message of deterrence to Pakistan or not. Obviously, they haven't. We have failed to deter Pakistan and they've continued with this policy of so-called cross-border terrorism. The policy of bleeding us by a thousand cuts and so on," he said.
He suggested going for deterrence using various means, as the "kinetic option" is always available.
"... We have got armed forces. That's what they are meant for, to fight wars. But that's a political decision that has to be carefully considered and taken. If we go kinetic right away as a knee-jerk reaction or in the sense of taking revenge, then it will be stepping on an escalatory ladder for which we must be prepared," Admiral Prakash told NDTV.
Sanctions against Pakistan, a country that is already reeling from harsh economic realities, will cripple the country, he said, adding the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), for example, can take strong action against Pakistan and choke all aid.
During his 40-year career, Admiral Prakash commanded a carrier-borne fighter-squadron, a naval air station and four warships, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat.
India has taken seven steps against Pakistan following the terror attack in Pahalgam. The biggest yet was India keeping the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance.
