Being the country’s defence minister is a thankless job, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Tuesday, IANS reported.

The former defence minister said the biggest problem was not being able to respond when something was being reported incorrectly in the media. “You are not in a position to reply because of secrecy and importance of the news... if you answer your enemy may come to know what you are up to,” Parrikar said at a Children’s Day event in Panaji.

Parrikar, however, said the highlight of his tenure was the surgical strikes across the Indo-Myanmar border in 2015. This strike was an easy decision, he said, “as there was no fear of retaliation”.

“But when it came to the Western front, things weren’t the same,” he said referring to India’s decision to strike the border with Pakistan. “What if there is a reaction? It could break into a war and you require to be prepared for it. That was a different kind of pressure,” he said, according to The Times of India.

Parrikar also told the children that as defence minister between 2014-2017, he missed eating fish as it is prepared in his home state. “There was no local flavour... You can only get it in Goa,” he said.