Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh has rejected the claim of former law minister Ram Jethmalani that it was former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra who was responsible for the wrong decisions on the Kandahar hijacking.
Jethmalani in an interview to Hindi Outlook had blamed Mishra for allowing hijacked plane IC 814 to take off from Amritsar airport after it had landed there.
"What happened after the December 1999 Kandahar hijacking? I had asked Vajpayee to remove Mishra forthwith. You have made such a person of the NSA, who allowed the plane to leave the country from Amritsar," Jethmalani is quoted to have told the news magazine in an exclusive interview.
"There was a time when he used to speak for us," is all that Rajnath Singh was willing to say about the noted supreme court lawyer and former law minister.
Rajnath outright rejected the claim that Brajesh Mishra had prevailed upon the Union Cabinet to release the terrorists ignoring the advise given by Jethmalani. "This was a decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security," Rajnath said.
He blamed the United Progressive Alliance government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh for compromising the security of the country by agreeing to withdraw the army from Siachen glacier.
"This decision is being taken despite the advice of the Chief of Army Staff General J J Singh to the contrary and after conveying the same in writing. This is the first time that differences between the government and the army have come into the open. The government should take all parties into confidence before taking a decision," he told a well attended rally in Shimla's ice skating rink.
Rajnath said that he was happy with the response he was getting from the people of India. "The kind of response that I have got from you would be just one side if I did not respond to your warm welcome with equal gesture," he said amidst thundering applause from the audience who had been waiting for over two hours to hear the BJP president who arrived at the rally a little after 5 pm in the evening.
Vijay Goel, who has been given the responsibility to look after the rally arrangements of Rajnath, regaled the crowd with some lighthearted comments and chided the audience for bringing a corrupt Congress government in power both in the state as well as at the Centre.
"First you bring them to power and now you say bayimano ka raj badal do," (Change the rule of the corrupt) he said.
