Fernandes drills hole in Advani hijack defence

New Delhi: George Fernandes has asserted that L.K. Advani did attend the meeting of ministers which decided Jaswant Singh should fly to Kandahar with the terrorists to be traded off for the passengers of a hijacked Indian plane.
The veteran ally’s remarks left the BJP speechless days after Advani had claimed he was initially unaware of the controversial decision, and came to know of it at the last minute.
“Yes, all of us were present,” Fernandes, the National Democratic Alliance convener, told interviewer Karan Thapar when asked whether Advani was at the meeting.
Fernandes was defence minister and Advani home minister in December 1999 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government decided that foreign minister Jaswant should accompany the freed militants to Afghanistan.
When Thapar mentioned Advani’s recent claim, Fernandes suggested the BJP leader might not have been at the meeting “at that point of time” and said he didn’t think Advani was “lying”.
But when the interviewer suggested that Advani’s recollections could be faulty, the Janata Dal (United) leader, according to the transcript, said: “Yes, that can happen.”
29/03/08 The Telegraph

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Domestic Mar 2008, Foreign Mar 2008, Safety Mar 2008