Former NSA Shivshankar Menon said the defence minister did not have a right to voice his personal opinion on nuclear policy in public, particularly when that opinion contradicted the country's official policy, reports Archis Mohan.

Former National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon has said the threat of a nuclear war with Pakistan has increased, but criticised Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for suggesting that India give up its 'No First Use' policy.

Menon believed that the September 29 surgical strikes, following the Uri terror attack, were inevitable, but disagrees with the Narendra Modi government's decision to go public with the information.

Menon had played a key role in the India-US civil nuclear deal and was India's foreign secretary when the 26/11 terror attacks took place in Mumbai in 2008.

Menon told India Today TV's Karan Thapar in an interview that he was wrong in advising the then Manmohan Singh government to retaliate after the 26/11 terror attacks.

Pranab Mukherjee, then the external affairs minister, had 'seemed to agree' with him. While Menon didn't reveal Dr Singh's response, India eventually did not retaliate militarily.

On Parrikar, Menon said the defence minister did not have a right to voice his personal opinion on nuclear policy in public, particularly when that opinion contradicted the country's official policy.

Menon, the NSA from 2011 to 2014 during the United Progressive Alliance government's second term, said Parrikar's suggestion would not be in India's strategic interest, as it would increase India's insecurity against Pakistan's tactical nuclear weapons.

Earlier this month, Parrikar had said that his 'personal opinion' was that India should re-look at its pledge of 'No First Use' of nuclear weapons.

New Delhi, the defence minister said, should only commit to being a 'responsible nuclear State.'

In 1998, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had given a unilateral pledge that India would not be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Elaborating on his criticism of Parrikar's comments, Menon said India's nuclear weapons were no guard and no deterrent against Pakistani terror.

Threatening a nuclear response to a terrorist attack from Pakistan "would be like threatening to kill a mosquito with a shotgun and would be unlikely to be understood by India's own people, let alone the international community," Menon said.

• 'Pakistan's Nasr missile is the most dangerous development in South Asia'
• Pakistan tends to resemble a suicide bomber
• Living in nuclear la-la land

IMAGE: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at a seminar Strengthening India's Defence Capabilities, organised by the Forum for Integrated National Security, in Mumbai, October 12, 2016. Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com