Former RAW chief Dulat's claim of 'goof up' by Vajpayee govt in Kandahar fuels controversy

New Delhi Former RAW chief A S Dulats claim of a goof up in Kandahar hijack response by the Vajpayee government in 1999 triggered a controversy on Friday with BJP outrightly rejecting it while Congress alleged that its soft approach laid the foundation of terrorismIn forceful assertions by its leaders BJP said there was no other option left then but to release the three dreaded terrorists to save the lives of people on board the Indian Airlines plane that was hijacked and taken to Kandahar Dulat the former head of Research and Analysis Wing RAW had said that the Crisis Management Group CMG goofed up the entire case by not immobilising the plane when it had landed in Amritsar and that the then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah felt the decision by Union Government to release terrorists was a mistakeThe BJP outrightly rejected Dulats claims about the alleged goof up of the IC814 hijacking incident It also rebutted claims of the ruling party compromising with terrorists and terrorism and accused Congress of allowing people like Warren Anderson responsible for the death of thousands in Bhopal gas tragedy escape scot freeFoundation of terrorism not only in India but the entire world was laid when three terrorists were let loose by a soft government led by the BJP Congress spokesman Tom Vadakkan said latching on to Dulats claims Accusing the BJP of practising false nationalism and fake patriotism he said it was a fact that the base of terrorism not only in India but the world was laid with the release of the three ultrasCongress demands that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP apologise unconditionally to the nation for having aided abetted and facoured antiIndia elements terrorists and criminals he saidRejecting Congress claims BJP Spokesperson M J Akbar said Congress has a very convenient memory on Kandahar while noting that the decision to save hijacked Indians was taken after consultations with everyone I challenge it to answer one question Should those around 200 Indians have been allowed to die Please ask them this question and please ask them to respond Akbar saidIt is regrettable but perhaps their Congresss occasional amnesia where it suits them On Kandahar consultations were held at the highest level by senior leaders of NDA It was a national crisis In the spirit of the Vajpayee government consultations were held with all the parties he saidYashwant Sinha a senior BJP leader and a Union Minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet during the Kandahar incident claimed that there was no other option before the government but save the lives of passengers Anyone who is criticising that decision should come out openly and say we should have sacrificed the lives of passengers held and not released the terrorists There wasabsolutely no other option except to brittle down their demand as much as we could through negotiations and then the very minimum had to be accepted he saidThree hardcore terrorists were released by the government in exchange for the lives of the 155 passengers and the crew members members to end the 8dayold hijack crisisFormer Union minister Sinha denied any failure during the Kandahar episode and said the issue was negotiations with those who had hijacked the plane and arrive at a settlement He also denied there was any exchange of money in the Kandahar incident and justified then Union Minister Jaswant Singh going there to deal with any political decision at the last moment Jaswant Singh had gone as we wanted a political person to be incharge on the spot If something had gone wrong at the last moment who would have taken the political decision he askedSinha was also not in favour of revealing secrets as Dulat has saying All of us are repositories to many secrets Secrets go to the grave with us We should not talk about them If the oath of secrecy is violated so freely then it will become too difficult for the government to functionBJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma accused Congress of raking up dead issues for its political survival and charged the opposition party with allowing Warren Andersen who was responsible for thousands of deaths in the Bhopal Gas tragedy to escape scotfree Congress is devoid of issues and is trying to borrow them and rake up dead issues he saidOn the issue of Syed Salahuddin seeking help for his sons medical admission BJP spokesperson Akbar sought to put the blame on the Jammu and Kashmir government led by Farooq saying the decision may have been taken by it and the question should be posed to him We want to say very categorically very unequivocally without the least hesitation that the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had nothing to do with that decision he saidCongress leader Vadakkan said his party stood vindicated by Dulats revelations which are severe indictment of BJP Government and establishes that selfstyled nationalism of BJP is guided by extending help to terrorists and criminals on humanitarian groundsAnother Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said the interview by former chief of Research and Analysis Wing RAW has brought certain disturbing facts in the open including that the Vajpayee government was in active communication with the Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and even admitted his son to a medical courseIt shows the pseudonationalism of the BJP Whenever in power it has compromised with terrorists and terrorism Kumar alleged adding that Saluhaddin and his organisation was responsible for the killings of thousands in the countryMeanwhile Hizbul Mujahideen also rejected the claim that its supreme commander Syed Sallahuddin contacted a senior officer of Intelligence Bureau to get a medical seat for his son The claim of Dulat about Sallahuddin contacting an intelligence official to get a medical seat for his son is a lie as big as the Himalayas There is no truth in the claimHizbul spokesman Saleem Hashmi said in a statement Sallahuddin had no contact with any government nongovernmental or security agency Hashmi added Moderate Hurriyat Conference also outrightly rejected the statement of Dulat that its Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq could have been made to join the mainstream politics We outrightly reject Dulats revelation the separatist amalgam said in a statement