Oops! Advani does it again

NEW DELHI: A full-blown embarrassment was staring at the BJP on Monday with the Congress pouncing on the party���s prime ministerial candidate Mr L K Advani���s remarks that he had no hand in the decision to send Mr Jaswant Singh with the terrorists to Kandahar and, in fact, had come to know about the plan only after the decision had been taken.

The Congress cited the disclosure as yet another instance of the BJP���s ``doublespeak,������ and is now planning to rake up the issue during the post-recess budget session of Parliament to push its principal political rival in a corner.

The issue figured prominently in a meeting of the Congress publicity committee held here on Monday afternoon, with party general secretary Rahul Gandhi using it to blast the BJP���s track-record on sensitive issues.

With several crucial state elections round the corner, the Congress, it is learnt, is now planning to bring out a booklet on the double-speak indulged in by the BJP over the years. Mr Advani���s revelations on the Kandahar episode, which remains a black spot in the Vajpayee government���s report-card, is expected to take the top spot in the booklet.

Even within the BJP, there was some amount of uneasiness over the timing, and the need for Mr Advani to resurrect an issue which was gradually being erased out of public memory. His remarks, party leaders conceded, had pitchforked the Kandahar episode back into the centre of political discourse.

BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy fumbled for an appropriate response when he was confronted with queries on Mr Advani���s Kandahar revelations. ``He has given clear answers in the interview. The CCS took a decision, and Mr Advani was a party to this decision,������ he said.

The Congress, on the other hand, could not stop gleeing over this unexpected development, but stopped short of charging Mr Advani of purveying ���falsehoods��� with his remark that he was not aware that the then foreign minister would be accompanying terrorists to Kandahar.

���If it is not a fact (Mr Advani���s statement), then the prime minister-in- waiting is misleading the country through falsehood and double speak...This is something that shows the character of the BJP,��� Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told mediapersons. He also added that it was ���quite unlikely��� and something that ���could not be believed��� that such a big decision was taken by the previous NDA government without taking the then home minister (Mr Advani) into confidence. ���I think the country would like to know from Mr Advani and Mr AB Vajpayee whether it is a fact or not,��� Mr Singh said.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi added that Mr Advani���s ���hagiography��� worked on the principle that whatever ���good happened is attributable to me��� and whatever ���did not happen or should have happened��� during the NDA regime was due to the former prime minister Vajpayee. He also said that it was ���mind boggling��� that the home minister of the NDA government did not know that the foreign minister was going to Kandahar with the terrorists ���What is the competence of the (NDA) government?��� Mr Singhvi asked charging that in the cabinet committee on security where the hijacking of IC 814 must have been discussed, even the ���essential elements of Kandahar were not put on the table let alone being cleared���.