In another dig at Advani, Dr Singh said, “When Mr Advani was the Home Minister, the government handed over terrorists to the Taliban in Kandahar.” The entire country knows the extraordinary circumstances in which the Vajpayee government took the painful, unpleasant but unavoidable decision of releasing three terrorists in order to secure the release of 155 passengers aboard the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December 1999. The action was in consonance with the unanimous decision taken by an all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on 27 December, in which the Congress was also present. The meeting had authorised the Vajpayee government to take “whatever decision keeping in mind the interests and safety of the passengers who were on board the aircraft”.

Let us also scrutinise Dr Singh’s words of ersatz bravado: “My government does not release terrorists when attacked. My government responds with commandos.” The hijacked Indian Airlines plane, when it reached Kandahar airport, was ringed by the tanks of Pakistan-controlled Taliban army. Moreover, the terrorists had placed explosives in the aircraft itself. It was on the sound advice of the Indian Army and Air Force that Prime Minister Vajpayee decided not to risk a commando operation in Kandahar and endanger the lives of 155 passengers. It is, therefore, foolhardy on the part of Dr Singh, who proved himself incapable of sacking his own utterly incompetent home minister for four-and-a-half years because the latter had the protection of 10 Janpath, to now say that he would have sent commandos to battle the terrorists in Taliban territory.

... contd.