Nuclear weapons meant to discourage, says Lt Gen Prakash Menon

By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Former Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and present Lok Sabha Member Manish Tewari stated that knowledge safety regimes in India are non-existent. “This fundamental mindset that ‘I have nothing to hide’ is a very big impediment in creating public pressure which would ensure the right to privacy becomes substantive,” he stated. Tewari was talking in Bengaluru on Thursday, alongside former National Security Council Secretariat army advisor Lt Gen Prakash Menon, on his e-book ‘10 Flashpoints 20 Years: National Security Situations that Impacted India’.

Apart from knowledge safety, each Tewari and Menon spoke on quite a few points pervading India. On the difficulty of nuclear weapons, particularly within the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine battle, Menon stated using nuclear weapons was extra psychological than bodily.

“It has been said that in a nuclear war, nobody wins. So any use of nuclear weapons would not be intentional, rather accidental, which is the greater danger,” he stated, citing the unintended firing of the BrahMos missile into Pakistan in March. He stated it was time for each India and China to steer on a Global No First Use (GNFU) coverage when it comes to nuclear weapons.

Speaking on the e-book itself, Tewari stated it was not aimed toward servicemen, moderately at his personal colleagues in Parliament and legislature to sensitise them on the challenges the nation faces. “We must use legislative powers to address some of these issues,” he stated, mentioning that 37 of his Parliament questions on the 2020 India-China skirmishes had been rejected. Echoing this, Menon stated, “The main aim of the book to educate Tewari’s contemporaries in Parliament and assemblies, I hope will be met sooner, rather than later.”