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Congress dares Vajpayee, BJP on Advani controversy
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SPECIALCORRESPONDENT on 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.”