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Advani's Kandahar-comment stirs controversy
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NewsByte on 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.