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BJP : Kandahar hijack comes back to haunt Advani |
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Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s memoirs, “My Country, My Life”, and his recent statements over the Kandahar plane hijack episode continue to stir up a hornet’s nest, giving ammunition to the Congress to turn the heat on him as well as his party.
The controversy involving Advani and his book seems to be raging even within the BJP-led NDA which has already nominated him as their PM candidate for the next general elections.
Advani’s claim that he was not in the loop on the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh accompanying three terrorists to Kandahar in 1999 was hotly contested by his former cabinet colleague George Fernandes, the NDA convener, who said the decision was not unilateral, but taken collectively by Ministers. “Yes, all Ministers were present”, Fernandes said in an interview to a TV channel on being asked whether Advani was present when the decision was taken that Singh (Jaswant) would accompany the terrorists to release them in exchange for 189 passengers and crew members of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane.
Fernandes’ comments are in sharp contrast to Advani’s account of this episode in his memoirs and recent interviews. Advani has held that he was not consulted about Singh escorting the terrorists to Kandahar until it happened.
Similarly, Advani’s claim that he spoke former US Ambassador Robert Blackwill seeking Washington’s help to end the crisis was also refuted by Blackwill who told the TV channel that he came to India as the envoy only two years after the crisis.
Advani India’s weakest Home Minister: Cong
Advani’s recent admission that he was not happy with the then BJP-led NDA government’s decision to release three terrorists in exchange for the hijacked passengers of an Indian Airlines plane at Kandahar in December 1999 and that he was neither consulted nor aware that Jaswant Singh will be personally escorting the terrorists until it happened, has led to the Congress has launching a bristling onslaught on him calling the BJP leader “the weakest and most inept Indian Home Minister ever.”
“This is disgraceful that Advani claims to be in the dark about his colleague Jaswant Singh’s Kandahar trip till the last moment in an episode that was one of the weakest and most shameful compromises with terrorism anywhere in the world,” AICC media department chairman Veerappa Moily said. “ Advani proved to be just a lameduck Deputy PM and Home Minister.”
Training his guns on Advani and the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Moily alleged, “The then Cabinet Committee on Security was also not evidently in the loop over Singh’s Kandahar trip in which he was accompanied by the chiefs of IB and the RAW, who apparently did not brief Advani about what was going on.” He added, “what kind of government were they running with the Cabinet being in total disarray over such a national security crisis issue ~ it clearly betrays a total failure of the country’s Cabinet system.”
NDA-ruled states up in arms against Centre
Training their guns at the Congress-led Centre, the NDA ruled States have accused it of “neglect” and “discrimination” as they unveiled a nine-point “chargesheet”, with a vow to “highlight inadequacies” in the farm loan waiver package and other policies.
At a conclave in New Delhi on March 29, nine NDA Chief Ministers accused the Centre of slashing power and PDS quota to their states, “neglecting” them by distributing calamity relief funds and “discrimination” against them when it comes to developmental programmes like highway and railway projects. The Chief Ministers complained that the Centre has not released funds promised to them for facing natural calamities like floods and drought, NDA spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told reporters after the meeting.
On the Centre’s recent announcement of Rs. 60,000 crore farm loan waiver package, the conclave sought to point out “inadequacies”, saying many agriculturalists would not benefit as they have unirrigated land of more than five hectares.
In clear signs that the NDA was planning to make it a major issue, Swaraj said the alliance has decided to raise the issue in Parliament and come out with a detailed document on the Centre’s “neglect” of the NDA States and take it to the people.
The NDA also appears to be gearing up for the polls as it decided to launch an agitation against the UPA’s “failure” to check “unbridled” price rise.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not attend the meeting which took place at the residence of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok sabha L.K. Advani.
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