Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Uncivil minister
Civil aviation Minister Sharad Yadav became highly unpopular during the hijack crisis because of his brusque 8212; if not downright rude 8212; manners. Yadav, who flew to Dubai to escort the small party of freed passengers, acted as if everyone in the government apart from himself was incompetent and was to blame for the tragic situation. He even confronted an elderly, ailing male passenger permitted to leave the aircraft and remarked that since his name indicated he was a Thakur surely he could have had enough valour to have singly overpowered the hijackers.
He ticked off an IB representative for searching for a pen to make notes of what the freed passengers had to say. While Jaswant Singh wanted the minister to return immediately with the exhausted passengers, Yadav insisted on staying on in Dubai for several hours till the Ripan Katyal8217;s body was released. He claimed credit for getting the UAE authorities to relax their rules and hand over Katyal8217;s body.
The weary passengers returning from Dubai were in no mood to accept the bouquets offered to them at the Delhi airport. Particularly as they noticed to their disgust that a member of the official rescue delegation had actually returned with three plastic bags full of duty-free goods from the Dubai airport.
Command performance
Crack commandos from the National Security Guard8217;s NSG Special Action Group who should have stormed the hijacked IA airplane at Amritsar were ready to fly off from the Delhi airport along with their sophisticated equipment within 47 minutes of first getting the news of the hijacking. But they weremade to wait because the IB was searching frantically for negotiators who were to accompany them. Considering that an anti-hijack team has been trained and kept in readiness for just these kind of emergencies, surely our intelligence services should have had the forethought to keep a panel of names of negotiators ready.
Incidentally, the NSG was set up in 1986 by Arun Nehru as a special commando force capable of taking swift action in a crisis. The personnel were handpicked from the Army, police and paramilitary forces. The majority of the once elite force, that now has a strength of around 3000, is used not for commando action, but for VIP security, a task duty which calls for entirely different training, skill and temperament.
Soldiers of fortune
During the initial stages of the Kargil conflict when it was believed that a large number of Afghan militants were involved in the operations, former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao offered some advice to a representative of the BJP government. Locatethe villages from where the Afghan militants came and woo over the tribesmen with money to make them switch sides. Afghan soldiers are, after all, the world8217;s oldest mercenaries. During the Charar-e-Sharif stand-off the Rao government had successfully persuaded the Afghan militants to retreat after some of their fellow tribesman were brought around with money and guaranteed safe passage.
Since there were no Afghan militants in Kargil, Rao8217;s suggestion could not be put into practice. But in the hostage crisis it would have made good sense to follow the same methods.
Noblesse oblige
Minister for Personnel Vasundara Scindia thoughtfully sends a birthday greeting card to every IAS officer posted with the Central Government in Delhi. Vasundara goes strictly by the birth date recorded in official documents. Some officials, including a senior secretary, have, however, fudged their birth dates, so when the minister8217;s greeting card arrives curious colleagues are quick to point out the discrepancy betweenthe card8217;s timing and their yearly birthday bashes!
Booking the ex-boss?
When it was made clear to him he was to be retired, former CBI director Joginder Singh brazenly started taking home confidential files from the office. He seems to have made xeroxes of the files since, and much to the embarrassment of the CBI, classified material from cases such as Bofors and the fodder scam has found its way into his book, Inside CBI. CBI officers have brought to the notice of higher authorities that their former boss has most certainly violated the Official Secrets Act. But it is a moot question whether anyone will take action against him.
