With India’s Image at Stake, New Delhi Must Answer Tough Questions on ‘Rogue’ Missile
New Delhi: The accidental firing of an Indian missile deep into Pakistan last week was the first time such an event between two hostile nuclear-armed states has occurred throughout the terrifying evolution of nuclear weaponry and their delivery systems over 77 years.
Although the two South Asian neighbours have fought four wars since independence, and for decades afterward exchanged artillery, mortar and small arms fire daily across their disputed line of control in Kashmir, the ‘rogue’ missile episode is a reminder of starker and more frightening possibilities.
“There has never been an incident like this (of a missile being fired) between two nuclear-weapon states (NWS) like India and Pakistan, especially as the missile flying time between them was under three minutes, leaving neither side any time to react,” said Professor Happymon Jacob, who teaches disarmament and diplomacy at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
And though there had been multiple scary occurrences during the Cold War era involving NWS like the US and the Soviet Union, none had even “come close” to the March 9 accidental missile firing by India inside Pakistan, he added.
Jacob said that such a scenario had “immense potential” to escalate if Islamabad had opted to retaliate, which it fortuitously did not, even though it was unaware that the incoming missile was unarmed. “Bilateral fail-safe protocols to manage and neutralise such emergencies between India and Pakistan remain inadequate and need bolstering,” observed Jacob
