No war, but troops to stay where they are: George

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

BANGALORE, JANUARY 7: The troop build-up on the border will continue despite the by-now famous handshake between Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee at the just-concluded SAARC summit in Kathmandu.

‘‘We are not scaling down our armed forces,’’ Defence Minister George Fernandes told reporters after addressing delegates at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit 2000 here.

Referring to Musharraf’s call made at SAARC summit for reduction of the military build-up, Fernandes said there is no question of that. ‘‘Who is he (General Musharraf) to ask us to pull back,’’ he said.
‘‘Our troops are on the frontline... They are in the bunkers...And they will remain where they are,’’ he said.

Fernandes said that he did not think the situation on the border had reached a ‘‘flashpoint’’. ‘‘Our troops are very disciplined and will not do anything that could lead to a flash-point situation.’’

‘‘We are not on the verge of war,’’ he chided a questioner while adding that Stage II diplomacy would take off in a day or two in the form of delegations that would tour important world capitals and brief leaders about the attack on Indian Parliament and the threat perception to India.

‘‘We will mobilise global opinion. I cannot state how long this diplomatic offensive would continue. We will give diplomatic efforts a chance, but not till eternity,’’ he said.

On the Defence budget, he said that the Finance Minister had not spoken to him yet, but modernisation of the armed forces would be a top priority. ‘‘We are already fighting a proxy war, the need for money is always there.’’

He, however, made it clear that India would stick to its no-first use nuclear doctrine.

‘‘We will stick to it. We will also not use nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state and thirdly no surgical strike has been planned against anyone.’’

He said that the SAARC summit had not brought about any qualitative change in the situation. ‘‘If anyone had hopes about this...The hopes have been belied,’’ he said.