National

Jaswant must quit: Congress

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday sought the resignation of Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh for stating that he would release terrorists if he again faced a hostage situation like the Kandahar crisis in December 1999.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told journalists that Mr. Singh’s statement to a television channel went against the unanimous resolution adopted by Parliament against terror. Mr. Singh’s statement was almost like an open invitation for hijack, he said.

“Will this not embolden those forces which have evil designs on India,” Mr. Tewari asked. BJP vice-president Gopinath Munde too had endorsed Mr. Singh’s views on another television channel. The BJP should clarify whether it agreed with Mr. Singh’s statement.

The Congress wanted to know whether such statements from the BJP’s senior leadership meant that the party did not agree with the anti-hijack policy decided by the Cabinet Committee on Security in 2005. This policy ruled out negotiations with hijackers on their demands and made it clear that talks would only be aimed at preventing loss of life.

Earlier in the day, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said Mr. Singh’s response was to a hypothetical question.

The decision to release the three terrorists in exchange for the hostages in Kandahar was taken at an all-party meeting, Mr. Prasad said. He, however, did not respond when it was pointed out that this was challenged by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha last week.

Mr. Chidambaram had said he checked the records and also references made to the IC-814 hijack in books written by Mr. Singh and the former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

The only reference was to a Cabinet meeting to release the terrorists.

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