India may revoke its no-first-use N-doctrine to counter Pak terror, say experts

Nuclear experts are of the view that `India may be re-interpreting its no-first-use nuclear policy to allow pre-emptive strikes against its neighbour,` TOI reported.

New Delhi: India may revoke its no-first-use nuclear policy in order to counter Pakistan's "persistent" terror threat, say top nuke experts.

Nuclear pundits are of the view that ”India may be re-interpreting its no-first-use nuclear policy to allow pre-emptive strikes against its neighbour,” the Times of India reported.

The experts have drawn their inference based on “cryptic statements from the Indian establishment”, among other things, the report said.

Prominent among those who spoke on the issue was the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who had said India should rethink about N doctrine.

Though Parrikar had later clarified that it was his personal view, experts noted what ex-foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon had said in his memoir that ''There is a potential grey area as to when India would use nuclear weapons first''.

Citing MIT scholar Vipin Narang, TOI reported that “it it looked increasingly likely that India may abandon its policy in order to launch a preemptive strike if it believed Pakistan was going to use any kind of nuclear weapons first”.

''India's opening salvo may not be conventional strikes trying to pick off just Nasr batteries in the theatre.

“But a full 'comprehensive counterforce strike' that attempts to completely disarm Pakistan of its nuclear weapons so that India does not have to expose its own cities to nuclear destruction.

''There is increasing evidence that India will not allow Pakistan to go first,'' TOI quoted Narang as saying.

According to the report, Narang's presentation at a recent conference drew attention of nuclear pundits both in the subcontinent and the US.