IAF chief P V Naik's 'very heavy response to Pakistan' remark irks Defence Minister A K Antony

NEW DELHI: A statement by Air Chief Marshal P V Naik that Indian response to a possible Pakistani nuclear attack would be "very heavy" doesn't seem to have gone down well with defence minister A K Antony.

Sources said the minister was "not amused" over the remarks made by the IAF chief, who is retiring on July 31, at a time when the two countries are holding foreign minister -level talks. In the backdrop of this development, Naik met the defence minister in his South Block office today.

The defence minister had himself refused to answer queries yesterday related to Pakistan's role in context of the Kargil war saying that he did not want to "vitiate the atmosphere" at such a time.

In his last press conference, the IAF chief had yesterday said that though India followed a 'no-first-use' nuclear policy but warned its response would be very heavy in the event of any nuclear attack on the country.

"Our nuclear policy is of no first use. It also talks about a very heavy response in case of a nuclear attack. It talks about a retaliatory and hard response, our policy talks about that... obviously our response would be absolutely violent as per our existing policy," he had said.