Saran blames media for Kandahar fiasco

NEW DELHI: In comments that could offer some tangential relief to the BJP and its senior leaders, foreign secretary Shyam Saran said the government had found it difficult to handle the hijacking of flight IC-814 to Kandahar in 1999 because of widespread media coverage. “The media publicity proved to a burst of oxygen for the hijackers. The media complicated the matter,” the foreign secretary said.

Interestingly, his remarks came while inaugurating a programme for journalists.
Though it remains vague just what role Mr Saran would prescribe for the media, he held on to the view that crises such as the Kandahar episode could not be sorted out in the public glare.

Since the Congress and the Left were in the forefront of demonstrations demanding an immediate resolution to the hostage crisis, Mr Saran’s remarks might take some of the sting out of the attack launched by the BJP’s political rivals, particularly the Congress.

The controversy over the episode was reignited by BJP leader Jaswant Singh in the run up to the release of his book, after which the BJP’s rivals sharpened their attack on the party. Mr Saran’s statement also comes in the backdrop of a scathing attack on AB Vajpayee and LK Advani by former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah.

He had accused the two leaders of compelling him to release LeT top man Maulana Masood Azhar — who went on to form the Jaish-e-Mohammad — and went on to say the “world would pay the price” for Masood Azhar’s release.

Mr Abdullah, whose NC was a part of the NDA, said he had even wanted to resign in face of the compelling directives sent out by Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani. “I did not want to be seen as the one responsible for promoting terrorism in this form,” Mr Abdullah said.

He said the pressure on him to release terrorists after the Kandahar hijacking in December 1999 was similar to the one he underwent exactly 10 years ago after the abduction of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of then Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. “As far as Maulana Masood Azhar is concerned, the decision to release him and the two other terrorists was made by Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani,” Mr Abdullah had said.

Given this backdrop, Mr Saran’s statements have come at an opportune time for the BJP. And as expected, the BJP used Mr Saran’s statement to drive home its political point that Mr Abdullah’s “revelations” have more to do with his anxiety to get into the Congress-led alliance’s tent.

The former CM, who shares a good rapport with current CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, is keen to forge an alliance with the Congress. For his part, Mr Azad is not too comfortable with his party’s alliance with the PDP.