After former RAW Chief AS Dulat made some damning claims, the Congress party has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise for the communal violence in 2002 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
In an apparent reference to Dulat’s claims about the Kandahar operation, Congress questioned BJP’s commitment to fighting terrorism and alleged it was wearing a “mask of nationalism”.
The BJP hit back asking the Congress in return if it would have preferred letting innocent passengers die in the hands of terrorists. Veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said that the decision that was made at the time was the best possible option. Sinha also said that the Vajpayee government was under “tremendous pressure” from the passengers’ families.
Hitting out at PM Modi over the 2002 riots, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said that Vajpayee even reminded “Chief Minister Modi to follow raj dharma (at the time)”.
Dulat had alleged that the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee admitted to him that the 2002 riots in Gujarat was “clearly a mistake”. He also said that due to lack of clear instructions during the IC 814 plane hijack in Kandahar, there were several “goof-ups” by the Crisis Management Group that he was a part of.
Congress also said the interview by former chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has brought “certain disturbing facts” in the open including that the Vajpayee government was in “active communication” with Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and even admitted his son to a medical course.
It shows the pseudo-nationalism of the BJP.... Whenever in power, it has compromised with terrorists and terrorism.
– Ajoy Kumar, Congress Spokesperson
Kumar added that Saluhaddin and his organisation was responsible for the killings of thousands in India.
One of the three dreaded terrorists released in exchange for the passengers included Maulana Masood Azhar. He is the founder of extremist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed which carried out the deadly attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001.
(With inputs from PTI)
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