Was handling a 1984 hijacking, discovered my father was on the flight: Jaishankar

Jaishankar told the audience how as a young officer, he was, on one hand, in the team dealing with the hijacking and, on the other, was part of the group of families putting pressure on the government.

During the question-and-answer session after his address to community members, an audience member sought the minister’s comments on the series ‘IC814: The Kandahar Hijack’, which he said, showed “the bureaucracy and government dealing with hijacking in poor light.”

With a disclaimer that he has not watched the series, Jaishankar revealed his personal connection to the July 5, 1984 hijacking, when an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked from Pathankot and taken to Dubai. After more than 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistan hijackers surrendered and released all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed.
“In 1984 there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team which was dealing with it. I rang up my mother to tell her, ‘Look, I can’t come. There’s a hijacking,” he said, elaborating how it was his turn to go home and feed his young son as his wife, too, was working.
“And then I discovered, my father was on the flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. It’s a long story, but fortunately, nobody got killed. It could have ended as a problem,” he said.

Jaishankar was an IFS officer and became a minister after his retirement. His father K Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer and a highly regarded commentator on strategic issues.

“And it was interesting because on one hand, I was part of the team which was working on the hijacking. On the other hand, I was part of the family members who are pressing the government for the hijacking. So actually, I have that very unique window on both sides, in that sense of the problem,” he said.

“So, often these are situations and movie guys don’t make the governments look good. The hero is supposed to look good. Then nobody would watch the movie and you got to accept that.”