Congress dares Vajpayee, BJP on Advani controversy

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SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

25 March, 2008 11:05:00

Former deputy prime minister L K Advani's wandering Kandahar jinn got a fresh command from the Congress party today, when the party dared former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to disown the statements of Advani, which according to the Congress party are "inaccurate and contrary to the facts".

Interacting with media at the party headquarter in New Delhi today, chairman of the committee of Congress spokespersons, Veerappa Moily said, "If the BJP and the then prime minister (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee have guts, they should disown Advani and his statements on Kandahar crisis."

Moily also asked the former prime minister to come clean on Kandahar issue. He said, "Even Vajpayee will have to answer as whether Advani's remarks suggesting his ignorance (about the then foreign affairs minister, IB director and RAW director accompanying the terrorists in the plane) were true. If he still maintains his silence, he will be considered an accomplish in this act of national shame."

Terming Kandahar episode "a historical blunder in handling terrorism", the Congress party also charged the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of having no communication and understanding between the ministers.

Moily also said that Advani did not have trust of other ministers of the NDA government and that is why he remained uninformed about the union minister escorting the terrorists. He said, "The home minister not being privy to the decision that the foreign minister shall travel to Kandahar and shall be at the helm of affairs to negotiate the exchange of passengers for the terrorists shows the peculiar fashion in which the NDA government functioned."

Advani- 'most shameful', Vajpayee- 'captive'

Rejecting BJP's claim of Advani being an 'iron-man' and Vajpayee an 'independent noble personality', the Congress party termed the NDA's prime ministerial candidate as the "weakest and most shameful home minister India has ever had".

The party also said that Vajpayee was "a captive and not the captain of the team", which was most evident during the Kandahar crisis when he was kept in dark about the hijack of IC-814 plane for over forty minutes. He is an object of sympathy, said Moily.

Calling Advani “a lame duck”, the Congress party defined Advani's concern for national security as “political hypocrisy”. It said, “Advani, who speaks so vociferously against terrorism allowed terrorists to slip out right under his nose in what is one of the most shameful compromise and disgraceful capitulations in the history of terrorism.”

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