BJP loses face over Kandhar surrender before terrorists
NEW DELHI: Even as Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has lost face over tackling terrorism, former External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh is coming out with interesting explanations to defend his decision of compromise he made with the terrorists during the Kandahar hijack crisis.
Earlier, he was quoted saying that his staff officials persuaded him to compromise with terrorists now he has stated, "That was inevitable as he could not "accept responsibility" for letting 166 innocent people on board IC-814 be blown apart on the midnight of December 31, 1999, the deadline set by the hijackers.
BJP government had released dreaded terrorist and also handed over money and arms to the hijackers in exchange of passengers. Madan Lal Khurana former BJP leader has alleged that Rs.900 crore was paid to the terrorists at Kandhar. Jaswant Singh at one stage said that he was under tremendous international pressure to obtain release of passengers.
The nation has been raising questions over role of Jaswant Singh in the back drop of Mumbai rail blasts killing 240 people last week. He however has explained that "The threat was real and it could not be brushed off. For that was the intelligence that had firmly and convincingly come our way, that if there was no resolution, the hijackers would do just that - preferably in a suicide mission, with the aircraft in the air," he says in his memoirs 'A call to honour' scheduled to hit the stands tomorrow.
"At first, I stood against any compromise, then, slowly, as the days passed, I began to change," he says. Singh also says that the role of forces inimical to India, specifically Pakistan's ISI, in the hijack "became so obvious and visible as events began to further unfold".
There was also a controversy over alleged payment of Rs.900 crores in dollars as ransom, which however, does not find mention in the book except for a reference that it was one of the demands of the hijackers.
Singh says in the book that India has repeatedly asked the US to hand over Taliban Foreign Minister Muttavakil for prosecution but Washington only provided 'limited access'.
"Repeatedly India has asked the United States, now the virtual ruler of Afghanistan, that it should hand over Muttavakil for prosecution. The United States has provided limited access but no more. That is the extent of its cooperation with India, so far, in this 'joint fight against terrorism'," Singh says.
"I do not really know what to term my mission - a rescue mission, an appeasement exercise, a flight to compromise or a flight to the future?" he asks.
Interestingly, Singh says the Taliban had actually goaded the negotiations on the hijackers of IC-814 and had even contemplated storming the Indian Airlines plane to rescue the passengers.
"He said that while the inevitability of such a course was discussed in the beginning, it was shelved once I arrived on the scene and it became known that India was sending its negotiating team," he says.
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For me the safety of the passenger of civilian flight, captured by Islamic terrorists, was more valuable than a few terrorists we had kept in our prison. I supported govt action that day and i think what was done was the need of the hour.
Btw, it was lapse of security which allowed fanatics into flight in Kathmandu, Nepal. And putting guns on the head of innocent is not exactly a sign of bravery. Rather such acts are done by weak-hearted losers who can not fight face to face with the armed forces.
Aparently kandhar was not the only surrender india did.PM V.P.Singh's Govt too surrendered and released terrorist to get then Home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Rubaiya Sayeed released in 1989.
