The army chief said that war is not the right solution and it is essential that India has good ties with China and reworks treaties with Pakistan.

A two-front war is not a “smart idea,” Lt Gen Surinder Singh, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, said on 28 February as he pointed out that it is imperative for India to improve relations with China in order to gain leverage over Pakistan.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Geo-strategic manifestations in Pakistan and Implications for India” at Panjab University’, Lt Gen Singh said it was necessary to secure at least one side of the border, reported Indian Express.

Army chief Bipin Rawat had said in June 2017 that the Indian Army was ready for a “two-and-a-half-front war”.

“In Pakistan, military’s writ runs... There has to be a greater role to military diplomacy so that the militaries of the two nations can work with each other and bring about greater confidence in each other and we can go forward,” the daily quoted him as saying.

He also emphasised that Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence had reduced the window for conventional conflict. “It is for that nation to lay down the red lines as to what is the limit of the punishment they will take,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called the BJP's impressive performance in Tripura Assembly polls people's answer to "fear, lies and confusion" being spread against his government, and targeted the Congress, saying it was never so diminished as a party as it is now.

In an address to party workers at the BJP's newly constructed headquarters following the announcement of the polls results in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya, Modi also took an apparent dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying some people grow in designation but shrink in stature.

In contrast, he said, BJP Chief Amit Shah was marching ahead by leading the party to victories in many states.

The prime minister described Shah as the architect of the party's victories.