Blame game rages over ‘soft approach’

New Delhi: Former RAW chief AS Dulat’s claim of a “goof up” in Kandahar hijack response by the Vajpayee government in 1999 triggered a controversy today with the BJP rejecting it and the Congress alleging that its “soft” approach laid the “foundation of terrorism”.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 3

Former RAW chief AS Dulat’s claim of a “goof up” in Kandahar hijack response by the Vajpayee government in 1999 triggered a controversy today with the BJP rejecting it and the Congress alleging that its “soft” approach laid the “foundation of terrorism”.

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said safety of passengers onboard the IC-814 was the top concern from the moment the aircraft was hijacked in Kathmandu.

“Now we can debate whether the plane could have been stopped or halted in Amritsar. We would have run the risk of the plane being blown up, the hostages being killed and then perhaps we would not have been sitting and discussing like we are doing today,” he said.

However, Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said: “We always said what the RAW ex-chief has now revealed. The then NDA government acted soft on terror and released terrorists who later became a global threat. These very terrorists later attacked Parliament, led the Mumbai carnage and masterminded many global attacks.”

He said the skeletons tumbling out of the cupboards of history required detailed DNA examination.

Passengers’ safety was top priority: BJP

"Now we can debate whether the plane could have been stopped or halted in Amritsar. We would have run the risk of the plane being blown up, hostages being killed and then perhaps we would not have been sitting and discussing like we are doing today" Yashwant Sinha, senior BJP leader

Soft stance laid terror foundation: Cong

"We always said what the RAW ex-chief has now revealed. The then NDA government acted soft on terror and released terrorists who later became a global threat. These terrorists later attacked Parliament, led Mumbai carnage and organised many global attacks" Tom Vadakkan, Cong spokesman