Citizens should not pressure government into military action: Retd Lt. General Sudarshan Hasabnis

Indian Express

04-05-2025

Speaking at the third Lalitaditya Memorial speech event organised by Sarhad in Pune, Retired Lieutenant General Sudarshan Hasabnis opined that Indian citizens should not create an internal environment that pressures the government into military action. He said, 'The national response [to the Pahalgam attack], I am quite sure, will be both covert and overt. It will be multidimensional. Like I said just the other day, there is no point in us citizens trying to create a situation inside our country which puts pressure on the government to take military action.'
At the event organised in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, Hasabnis highlighted the media's role in creating such an environment and said, 'The media has a big role to play in this. In fact Mr Modi, in relation to the Ukrainian War and the Gaza War has repeatedly said that 'this is not an era for war'. I am sure India doesn't want war. At the same time, we as a united nation have to show that we have the resolve that in case and whenever we go to war, we will be prepared.'
He explained that any war is like a boxing match where each boxer will be on the receiving end of some punches. 'If you go, if you take any action, there will be some reaction. There will be loss of life. We need to be prepared for that,' he said.
Former Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Haseeb Drabu delivered the keynote address at the event and said that the loss of social connectedness was a much greater loss to Kashmir rather than the economic loss. 'The far greater loss of this attack is the loss of social connectedness. Every tourist who goes to Kashmir is not an ATM machine from whom we take out cash. It's a relationship we have invested in. People have been going there for years and years and have built relationships. Tourism is an industry of peace. It is an industry which connects people,' Drabu said.