This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
The Cynical Nerd points to an excellent op-ed by Brahma Chellaney. Indeed Vajpayee’s capitulation to the IC-814 hijackers, an operation masterminded by Gen Musharraf himself, is literally a bleeding shame.
Kandahar set in motion a process from which India has found hard to recover due to its leadership deficit — the further softening of this country, mirrored in its growing forbearance towards terrorism.
Yet, there has been no mea culpa from the architects of the Kandahar capitulation, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and company. Not even a casual acknowledgement of guilt.
While they were in office, they frustrated any inquiry effort to get to the bottom of how they ended up negotiating with the terrorists on bended knees. Lest the CBI inquiry uncovered the culpability of Brajesh Mishra, who bungled in the take-off of the commandeered plane from Amritsar, the Crisis Management Group claimed to have maintained no records. Its members even feigned loss of memory on key details. Equally unsavoury was how security agencies were used to orchestrate demonstrations by hostages’ relatives to help build a public case for succumbing to the hijackers’ demands.
Even in opposition ranks, Vajpayee and company have maintained a conspiracy of silence…
As an open, untreated sore on the Indian body politic threatening to become gangrenous, Kandahar has brought India under increasing attack from terrorism. Turning this abysmal situation around demands a new mindset that will not allow India to be continually gored and treats terrorism as an existential battle. That in turn means a readiness to do whatever it takes to end the terrorist siege of India. [HT]
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