NEW DELHI, March 24: Former Indian home minister Lal Kishan Advani has said he was opposed to his government’s surrender to the hijackers of a civilian plane to Kandahar in 1999, evincing a tart response from the ruling Congress party over the glaring split on the issue in former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s cabinet.

The Indian Express quoted the BJP’s strongman and prime ministerial candidate in the next elections as saying he was against the decision to free terrorists in return for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines IC-814.

“But what’s more startling is that Advani says he had nothing to do with the decision to send (former foreign minister) Jaswant Singh with the freed terrorists to Kandahar,” the Indian Express said. “In fact, Advani, who was then the Home Minister, claims he didn’t even know that Jaswant Singh was going until after the decision was taken.”

Quoting from Mr Advani’s interview to a TV channel, the report said for Mr Advani the safety of passengers became the over-riding priority. “Yes, I was not happy with the decision but at the same time the lives of 160 passengers being at stake and the information that we got, which I have mentioned in my book, that they are likely to blow up the plane if government of India does not...”

So why did Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh have to go with the terrorists — a point that the UPA keeps harping on whenever the BJP accuses it of being soft on terror? “We’ve talked about it occasionally but I don’t want to say anything. Let him say it, whatever he wants to say,” Mr Advani said.

Asked if looking back he would say it was a wrong decision, Mr Advani said: “I won’t say anything. I will only say that it would be fair for him to answer that question. Because this was not part of the decision. The decision was on whether they should be freed or not. And that was the joint decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security.”

To a specific question whether going on the plane was Jaswant Singh’s

own decision, Mr Advani said: “I wouldn’t say. I wouldn’t know that. He must have consulted Vajpayeeji. But that was not an issue at all... He was not escorting them, he was trying to bring back the passengers being held hostage. But I don’t think I am answerable for that. If the Cabinet Committee on Security had taken the decision, I would have been answerable, but it did not.”

Asked if he was not consulted on Jaswant Singh going on plane, Advani

said: “I didn’t know about it.” Asked when he came to know that Mr Singh had gone on that plane, the former home minister said: “I came to know when he was going.” It didn’t raise a question in his mind then whether there was any need for it. “After all, passengers were to be brought back from there,” he said.

Mr Advani said that he was “absolutely sure” that no money was paid for the release of terrorists.

The Congress was unsparing over the remarks. “It is mind boggling that no less a person than the foreign minister was going to Afghanistan and the home minister was not aware of it,” he said adding that not to see, hear or speak about matters in the government is a “mark of incompetence and not a virtue”.