The chairman of India’s National Security Advisory Board, Shayam Saran, has warned Pakistan that if it ever uses tactical, i.e. battlefield, nuclear weapons against Indian forces, it will be the target of an all-out Indian nuclear attack.
In an April 24 lecture titled “Is India’s nuclear deterrent credible?,” Saran declared, “f [India] is attacked with such [tactical nuclear] weapons, it would engage in nuclear retaliation which will be massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage on its adversary.” He continues, “From the Indian perspective…the label on a nuclear weapon used for attacking India, strategic or tactical, is irrelevant.”
A former Foreign Secretary and India’s chief negotiator during the Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear treaty talks, Shayam is an authoritative spokesman on India’s military-strategic and nuclear policy. He would not have made such a bald, significant, and blood-chilling statement without having received the go-ahead from the highest levels of India’s government and military.
Looks the Indians are joining the French and Americans in intergrating nuclear warfare into their future military plans.