The BJP supremo distances himself from Kandahar fiasco but questions remain unanswered
Did the Home Minister of India know that his colleague, the Foreign Minister, was politely escorting terrorists in the aftermath of the Kandahar hijack drama to Kabul; a tale so tragic and humiliating that India will forever find it difficult to live it down? The then Home Minister and currently BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, has suggested in his book `My country, My life’, that he was not in the know when then Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, escorted Maulana Masood Azhar and two other terrorist killers to safety in Kabul.
While Advani’s standing as a one of the few genuine practioners of realpolitic has been re-enhanced with this book - which is different from mere journalistic writing - his position on Kandhar is bound to put the BJP in the dock. Is this a case of too little too late? Does Advani, himself one of the great political spin doctors of modern India, think it is time for course correction to a sordid chapter of the country where he was ultimately responsible for law and order?
Close Advani sympathiser and columnist Swapan Dasgupta, makes this point: “Advani has taken an important step in distancing himself from the shameful capitulation in Kandahar. That, unfortunately, isn't enough. It is necessary for him to take advantage of the renewed interest in the subject to propose a policy that will make it impossible for another Kandahar to recur. In short, the BJP as a whole must admit that it erred in 1999 and assure the nation that no Government in future will repeat that mistake.“
As expected, the cat has been set among the pigeons. His former colleague in the then NDA government, Defence minister, George Fernandes, has more or less refuted the BJP chief’s version by saying the decision to send Jaswant was not unilateral and that a clutch of top ministers, including Advani, knew of the decision to put Jaswant on the plane.
The answer, as ever, is likely to be shrouded in history and rhetoric. But it raises several questions. Did the law of Cabinet accountability apply in the case of Kandhar? If it did, it was very bad. If it did not, the crime is compounded. It remains to be seen how the Congress, which is keen to offset the advantage that the BJP is trying to rake up on the Afzal Guru issue, capitalises on the subject.
The BJP has attacked the Congress on soft pedalling the Afzal issue and are demanding death punishment for him. The Congres in an attempt to deflect the attack has called into question the NDA government''s conduct during the Hijack drama. Jaswant Singh by escorting released terrorists had done a job best left to Intelligence and security agencies and not the nation''s Foreign Minister.The BJP had been deeply embarassed over its handling of the Kandahar crisis.
For Advani, who joined the RSS in 1942, it has been a steady but meteroic rise in the Sangh Parivar. He was the Jan Sangh''s Karachi’s branch secretary. Advani was sent to Rajasthan as the Sangh''s organiser in Mewat in 1947. He was actively involved in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and rose in the ranks of the Delhi branch of that party and was elected on the ticket of that party from 1970 to 1975. Advani was detained under the MISA in Bangalore prison during the Emergency years.
Did the Home Minister of India know that his colleague, the Foreign Minister, was politely escorting terrorists in the aftermath of the Kandahar hijack drama to Kabul; a tale so tragic and humiliating that India will forever find it difficult to live it down? The then Home Minister and currently BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, has suggested in his book `My country, My life’, that he was not in the know when then Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, escorted Maulana Masood Azhar and two other terrorist killers to safety in Kabul.
While Advani’s standing as a one of the few genuine practioners of realpolitic has been re-enhanced with this book - which is different from mere journalistic writing - his position on Kandhar is bound to put the BJP in the dock. Is this a case of too little too late? Does Advani, himself one of the great political spin doctors of modern India, think it is time for course correction to a sordid chapter of the country where he was ultimately responsible for law and order?
Close Advani sympathiser and columnist Swapan Dasgupta, makes this point: “Advani has taken an important step in distancing himself from the shameful capitulation in Kandahar. That, unfortunately, isn't enough. It is necessary for him to take advantage of the renewed interest in the subject to propose a policy that will make it impossible for another Kandahar to recur. In short, the BJP as a whole must admit that it erred in 1999 and assure the nation that no Government in future will repeat that mistake.“
As expected, the cat has been set among the pigeons. His former colleague in the then NDA government, Defence minister, George Fernandes, has more or less refuted the BJP chief’s version by saying the decision to send Jaswant was not unilateral and that a clutch of top ministers, including Advani, knew of the decision to put Jaswant on the plane.
The answer, as ever, is likely to be shrouded in history and rhetoric. But it raises several questions. Did the law of Cabinet accountability apply in the case of Kandhar? If it did, it was very bad. If it did not, the crime is compounded. It remains to be seen how the Congress, which is keen to offset the advantage that the BJP is trying to rake up on the Afzal Guru issue, capitalises on the subject.
The BJP has attacked the Congress on soft pedalling the Afzal issue and are demanding death punishment for him. The Congres in an attempt to deflect the attack has called into question the NDA government''s conduct during the Hijack drama. Jaswant Singh by escorting released terrorists had done a job best left to Intelligence and security agencies and not the nation''s Foreign Minister.The BJP had been deeply embarassed over its handling of the Kandahar crisis.
For Advani, who joined the RSS in 1942, it has been a steady but meteroic rise in the Sangh Parivar. He was the Jan Sangh''s Karachi’s branch secretary. Advani was sent to Rajasthan as the Sangh''s organiser in Mewat in 1947. He was actively involved in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and rose in the ranks of the Delhi branch of that party and was elected on the ticket of that party from 1970 to 1975. Advani was detained under the MISA in Bangalore prison during the Emergency years.
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