NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 28: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has taken a serious view of the fact that he was not informed of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines plane for 40 minutes when he was airborne. He got a slip in his hand only after he landed at the Delhi Airport at 5.20 pm on December 24 though the first information about the hijacking had come at 4.40 pm.Even the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Ravindra Gupta, who had been told by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Palam about the hijacking immediately after it received a report, failed to inform his minister, Sharad Yadav, who was with the PM in his special aircraft.Vajpayee and Yadav were returning from Patna after addressing a rally and they could have been informed through the pilot or on the PM's satellite phone.The Crisis Management Group (CMG), which is required to swing into action within 30 minutes of any crisis breaking out, had not even met by then. In fact, when the Prime Minister reached his residence at 5.35 pm and summoned his Cabinet colleagues for a meeting immediately, the CMG had not even reached Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan.When the PM was discussing the incident with L K Advani, Yashwant Sinha, Pramod Mahajan, Jaswant Singh and Sharad Yadav and his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra, the CMG was still struggling to verify the information.When it finally got into the act, it committed a grave error by conveying the wrong information to the Government that the hijackers were carrying AK-47 rifles. Since the pilot of the IA aircraft had not sent this information through the ATC, it was presumed that intelligence agencies were the source. With time running out, this information played a role in taking the decision to allow the aircraft to leave Amritsar.Another gaffe by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) was its ``tip-off'' to the CMG that the six suspected hijackers had directly boarded the IA flight in Kathmandu after disembarking from a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight the same day and around the same time.The CMG conveyed this to Jaswant Singh who went on TV. But this was rebutted strongly by the Pakistan and Nepalese governments and the IA also came out with a formal statement. It became clear that none of the four suspected hijackers came from the PIA flight in Kathmandu on that day or even before.The Prime Minister is also upset with the IB, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and other agencies for failing to do anything concrete even after receiving reports that Kathmandu had become the hub of militant activities. The IB had issued a routine warning around December 6 that some fundamentalists (Muslims) could indulge in violence, including hijacking. No one took cognisance of the warnings issued by the US that Kathmandu was a vulnerable spot.Since the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Ministry got no specific information, they failed to direct the IA and Air-India to step up security measures. In fact, the Home Ministry had dispatched a paper to Nepal three years ago for taking joint steps for airport security. However, this note was not followed up.It was because of the CMG's failure in managing the crisis that the Prime Minister himself has taken charge with Brajesh Mishra and Jaswant Singh assisting him. The Civil Aviation Ministry's role is now confined to using the ATCs to communicate. H S Khola, chief of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), is perhaps the only person who has not slept for four days.Vajpayee is consulting his other Cabinet colleagues on vital issues. When Mamata Banerjee and Yashwant Sinha offered their services to go to Kandahar as part of the negotiators' team, Vajpayee, according to sources, said the talks should not be upgraded to the level of a minister at this stage.
