The BJP said that the answer to how the Kandahar hijack should have been handled lay "buried" in the statement of Home minister P Chidambaram.
Advising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to go through LK Advani's book "again", the BJP said on Monday that the answer to how the Kandahar hijack should have been handled lay "buried" in the statement of Home minister P Chidambaram who had said it was a "difficult" decision to release terrorists.
BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said the answer to the Kandahar hijack issue lay "buried in the statement of Home minister Chidambaram in which he had said that while it is easy to criticise but if one is in the position, it is a very difficult decision."
Reacting to the attack mounted by Gandhi on Advani on the hijack episode, the BJP spokesperson said "my advice to him (Rahul) is to read the book again. He will get the answer."
Quoting Advani who had said that he did not know about the release of the terrorists, Gandhi, addressing a press conference in Kochi earlier today said, "there are two possibilities. (Either) he is not telling the truth or his senior leader...the PM.. ...Vajpayee did not trust him."
Mocking Advani, Gandhi had asked, "did he buckle under pressure when Kandahar happened or did Vajpayee not believe in him. I want to know which is correct?"
Prime minister Manmohan Singh also took a dig at BJP on the hijack issue while talking to reporters.
While agreeing that communal riots should be "condemned", Siddharth Nath Singh said it was wrong to blame the Gujarat government for the riots there.
"Within 12 hours the Army was called in. Before blaming the Gujarat government, Congress should remember the statement of Minister of state for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal in Parliament that while 790 Muslims and 280 Hindus were killed in the violence, 18,000 preventive arrests were also made," he said.
Singh claimed that "the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were inspired by the Congress and were state sponsored. Therefore, not only the PM, but the entire party should apologise."
The BJP spokesperson was reacting to the PM's statement in Mumbai in which he had said that the Gujarat carnage and 1984 anti-Sikh riots are a blot on the secular image of the country and such things should not happen.
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