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Cabinet decided to send me to Kandahar: Jaswant

New Delhi: In remarks that are at variance with those of L.K. Advani, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Saturday said the decision to send him to Kandahar in 1999 during the Indian Airlines plane hijack crisis was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security and the then Home Minister could have “forgotten” it.

“It was a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security,” Mr. Singh told reporters here when asked about the then External Affairs Minister accompanying three terrorists to Kandahar to seek release of 156 people held hostage on the hijacked plane.

When referred to Mr. Advani’s recent remarks that he was not aware about Mr. Singh going to Kandahar as the CCS had not taken any such decision, Mr. Singh said the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha “would either have forgotten or have been absent from the meeting.”

In an interview, Mr. Advani had said: “I wouldn’t know that [Singh is going]. He [Singh] must have consulted [the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari] Vajpayeeji... I don’t think I am answerable for that. If the CCS had taken the decision, I would have been answerable but it did not.”

Pressed further on the issue, Mr. Singh said he was not seeking to refute what his “leader” had said.

“Do you expect me to refute what Advaniji has said? How can I say that my leader [Advani] is not correct? How can the leader be wrong? Whatever he is saying is correct,” Mr. Singh said. He said the steps taken by the government were in accordance with the decision arrived at an all-party meeting.

“The first priority arrived upon at the meeting of all parties was the security of the passengers and their early release,” he added.

Mr. Singh claimed Mr. Vajpayee did not subscribe to his former aide Brajesh Mishra’s views on the India-U.S. Nuclear Deal. “I have met Vajpayeeji. He has said that he has nothing to do with what the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra has said on the nuclear deal,” Mr. Singh told reporters here. “This is to set at rest any connotation of the statement being attributed to Vajpayeeji in some section of the press.”

Asked if it was significant for a former NSA and a trusted member of the NDA government taking a stand against that of BJP on the key issue, Mr. Singh said, “He has all the right to change and to arrive at a conclusion.” Mr. Mishra had stated in an interview recently that he favoured India’s going ahead with the nuclear deal. — PTI

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