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Home | Politics | Advani's Kandahar-comment stirs controversy

Advani's Kandahar-comment stirs controversy

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NewsByte 24 March, 2008 10:49:00
Following his candid confessional comment on handling of Kandahar crisis and autobiography, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani is again back among controversies. And, this time Advani has put his own party in a very precarious situation, where it finds itself unable to answer query as to how come a deputy prime minister was not aware of the "procedural decision" of Jaswant escorting the three dreaded terrorists to Kandahar to save lives of about 160 passengers of the hijacked plane IC-814 in December, 1999.

On a day when Congress questioned his competence as deputy prime minister "if he was not part or aware of the decision taken by the cabinet committee on security during National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime" leading to Jaswant Singh going along with terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar to Kandahar in a private plane.

On the controversy, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi today said, "The confession, to put it mildly, is mind boggling. How can a deputy prime minister remain dissociated with such an important decision."

On the other hand, the BJP was on defensive today as it kept explaining that the decision to release the terrorists as a bargain for "lives of innocent citizens". BJP national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that release of terrorists and Jaswant Singh's escorting them to Kandahar are two different aspects of the same episode.

Advani was not aware of the procedural aspect of the release, which was a sub-issue, said Rudy adding that nowhere Advani was dissociated from the decision making in handling the crisis.

In an interview with a private news channel earlier, the Leader of Opposition had said that he was not aware of the decision that the then minister for external affairs Jaswant Singh was to accompany the jailed terrorists.

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