Cong seeks clarification on Advani’s Kandahar remark

The Congress on Sunday demanded an explanation from former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh on former home minister L K Advani’s revelations that he was not consulted on Singh going to Kandahar on a plane along with terrorists released in exchange for hostages during the 1999 hijacking crisis. Advani had told The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV’s Walk The Talk that he was not happy about the release of terrorists and he had not been consulted about Jaswant Singh accompanying them on the plane to Kandahar.

The ruling Congress pounced on Advani’s revelations to train its guns at the Opposition BJP. “It is amazing how the home minister was unaware of the fact that Jaswant Singh was being sent along with terrorists. We would like to officially know from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jaswant Singh whether it is a fact, whether all this happened behind the back of the then home minister. The country needs a clarification. If there were any other home minister, he would have resigned,” said AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh.

The issue dominated discussions at the meeting of the publicity and publication committee of the AICC, with general secretary Rahul Gandhi expressing “surprise” at Advani’s statement. The committee decided to come out with a booklet on the “double speak of the BJP on various issues”, which will also include Advani’s revelations.

On Monday, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “It is mind boggling that no less a person than the home minister did not know that the external affairs minister was going to Kandahar,” said Singhvi.