Six terrorists shouldn’t stop you from talking: Former NSA Shivshankar Menon

Menon, who was speaking at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express, said he was “surprised” by the decision to postpone talks with China in the wake of the Pathankot attack.

Shivshankar Menon at the Idea Exchange. (Express Photo by: Cheena Kapoor)

Former National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon Thursday said terror attacks should not come in the way of India’s dialogue with its neighbours.

Responding to a question on the uncertainty over the Foreign Secretary-level talks and the government putting the ball in Pakistan’s court, Menon, who was speaking at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express, said he was “surprised” by the decision to postpone talks with China in the wake of the Pathankot attack — NSA Ajit Doval decided to defer scheduled talks with his Chinese counterpart.

“It is up to them. I mean I don’t speak for the government. I am just telling you what I think. I was surprised by two or three things. One, you postpone the talks with China. If six terrorists can stop you from discussing serious business with your biggest neighbour, for me, that’s not a good signal to send. I mean, not for India… this is something you can handle… But you know, they must have come to a calculation. They must have seen what the Pakistanis are doing, they know much more about what is happening on the ground. So you know I am not going to try and second guess that. I am arguing from first principles here. They are presumably acting on much more,” he said.

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Watch: Ex NSA Shivshankar Menon at the Idea Exchange

Asked about the manner in which the security establishment responded to the Pathankot attack, Menon said, “As far as I can see, there is a lot of spin, and a lot of leaking and a lot of motivated stories out there in the media, so I am not going to comment on how the operation was done and who did what to whom. I mean I am just horrified… the kind of stories, frankly. And that part is what worries me much more than how analysis was done, who did what to whom.”

Asked what should have been the ideal response to the attack, Menon said, “There is no such thing… it depends on what you know at that time and what you are trying to achieve at that point of time. There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all. Any terrorist attack, here we go…You can’t have a simple response to these things.”

To a query on whether the NSA should be involved in tactical decisions of an operation or should instead oversee the broader strategic issue and leave tactical matters to service chiefs and experts, Menon said, “We’ve had five NSAs. We were the first parliamentary democracy to have an NSA. I mean it is easy in a presidential system because the NSA essentially represents the President and does his work. But in our system, the executive power of the Union is with the Cabinet. With the ministers… ours is still an evolving system. Each NSA has done his job in his own way. And you have seen. Starting with Brajesh Mishra onward, I mean different levels of operational and tactical involvement by NSA. So again, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here. Because what is tactical question, what is a strategic question, everything looks strategic at certain levels.”

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Asked about the meeting of former foreign secretaries and envoys to Pakistan called by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last Sunday, he said, “We were actually called before Pathankot happened and the meeting was set up on Thursday… on Wednesday night, Thursday morning. So I don’t think we were actually called to discuss Pathankot and what happened.”

So was Pathankot discussed at the meeting? “We ended up talking about it certainly… It was more about many of the things… What’s the link between terror, talks, how do we… what should we be aiming at, what are India’s interests… many of these things we discussed.”

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