'What America Did After 9/11' - CDS Bipin Rawat Lays Out US-Style Battle Plan To Fight Terrorism

“The war on terror is not ending, it is something which is going to continue, we will have to live with it,” said India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat voicing the bitter reality of modern world. Addressing a session at the ongoing Raisina Dialogue 2020, General Rawat also spoke about how fighting global terrorism not only needs tough resolution but tougher battle plan. “We've to bring an end to terrorism & that can only happen the way Americans started after 9/11, they said let's go on a spree on global war on terror. To do that you have to isolate the terrorists, anybody who is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task,” General Rawat said.

State-sponsored terrorism

Without taking name of Pakistan, General Rawat also spoke about states sponsoring terrorism. “Terrorism is here to stay so long as there are going to be states that are going to sponsor terrorism and they are going to use terrorists as proxies, make weapons available to them, make funding for them, then we can't control terrorism,” General Rawat said.

On situation in Afghanistan, General Rawat said, “You have to come to a peace deal with everybody (in Afghanistan), if you've to come to a peace deal with them you've to go for negotiated peace. Taliban or whichever org is contemplating terror has to give up that weapon of terror, they must come to the political mainstream.”

FATF and fight against terrorism

Lauding the FATF mechanism, General Rawat said that, “Any country which is sponsoring terrorism has to be taken to task. I feel one of the measures adopted is of blacklisting by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is one good measure. Diplomatic isolation, you have to do this.”

Role of CDS

He also spoke about his role as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff. “CDS is the first among equals but he has got clear and well-defined responsibilities. While he is the first among equals, he has some authority over the three service chiefs except on operational issues,” General Rawat said. On his new department, General Rwat said that, “I think the task is well cut out & we will be able to function within the firm framework which has been laid out for the CDS. I don't visualize any problems. We've had meetings with the 3 chiefs and a lot of decisions have already been taken in past 15 days.”