Govt. has bungled: Left

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 1. The knives were out for the Vajpayee Government today for its handling of the hijack crisis, with the Left parties accusing it of bungling and then attempting a ``cover-up.'' The Government, they said, must take the responsibility for letting the crisis spin out of control and narrowing down its options to a point where it was left with few choices.

They hastened to clarify that their criticism did not imply that the lives of 160-odd people should have been put to risk, but was directed against the way the situation was handled, starting with the goof-up in Amritsar and culminating into relying ``too much'' on the Taliban and their expression of good intentions. Not enough was done to mobilise international opinion against the hijackers, and their sponsors.

The CPI(M) demanded a ``high-level independent inquiry'' to ``uncover all facts'' and fix responsibility for the ``blunder.'' The Government tried to suppress facts even after a decision had been taken to release the militants in exchange for hostages. The ``overall interests'' of the nation had been ``ignored'' while releasing the militants, the party said. The party's general secretary, Mr Harkishan Singh Surjeet, said the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, called him up in Calcutta at about 2 p.m. on Friday to invite him for an all-party meeting, but did not say a word about the ``deal'' though by then the Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, was already on his way to Kandahar with the released militants.

On the contrary, the Prime Minister told him that Mr Jaswant Singh was going there to negotiate the release of hostages. ``When I told him that the Government should try to bring international pressure on the Taliban and hijackers he said that's why the Foreign Minister was going to Kandahar. One hour later I learnt that he was going there with the militants as part of an agreement,'' Mr Surjeet said.

He charged that even at that late stage a ``cover-up'' was going on, and the Prime Minister himself was guilty of ``hiding facts.'' He also questioned the decision to call an all- party meeting after the Government had taken a decision at the back of the Opposition. ``What was the idea of calling a meeting then?,'' he asked.

Calling the decision a ``big betrayal of the cause of Kashmir'', Mr Surjeet said that the release of militants would have a debilitating effect on the security environment in Kashmir and undo the efforts that were on to curb militancy in the State.

The CPI general secretary, Mr A.B.Bardhan, said the Government could not simply shrug off the ``bungling'' at Amritsar after which the situation really got out of hand. ``The Government landed itself into a situation in which it had to the yield to the hijackers' demand for the release of some of the most notorious terrorists,'' he said.

It was``strange'', he pointed out, Mr Jaswant Singh personally travelled with the militants. ``What kind of signal does this send out?,'' he asked. Mr Bardhan said he hoped that the Government would take a close look at the security environment and ensure that this sort of incident did not occur again.

The CPI(M-L) general secretary, Mr Dipankar Bhattacharya, expressed satisfaction over the release of the hostages, but charged the Vajpayee Government with ``callousness'' in ``not taking the initiative at Amritsar.''

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