Through a Statesman's Gaze

The Undying Light by Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a gem of a memoir that morphs the veteran's personal memories with India's post-independence socio-political history. Excerpts:

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The Hindustan Times reported (1 January) that informally, the decision to release the hijackers had been taken on the night of 29 December: "The militants-for-hostages swap was decided collectively by Prime Minister Vajpayee, Home Minister Advani, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Brajesh Mishra, the Director of the Intelligence Bureau and the Secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing late on Wednesday (December 29, 1999).

President Narayanan, an alert 'diplomatist' antenna within his brain receiving and transmitting signals, alerted Vajpayee and Jaswant Singh on the criticality of naming Pakistan and telling the world what and where we stood on terrorism. Not that they were unaware, but nudges work to speed, ginger, and sharpen action.

On 3 January, Prime Minister Vajpayee formally accused Pakistan of being behind the December hijacking of IC 814 and urged that Pakistan be declared a terrorist state.

On 6 January, four men based in Kashmir were arrested in connection with the hijacking. Discussion on the whys and why-nots of the incident went on, with former prime minister Gujral saying, 'Although the Prime Minister rang up to say that [Jaswant] Singh was going, he did not breathe a word of the deal that had already been struck with the hijackers. He told us half-truths.

President Narayanan's speech in Parliament on 23 February 2000 had forty-nine paragraphs dealing with almost every aspect of governance. The hijack came in for passing mention in these lines: 'Irrefutable evidence has been provided by the Government about the Pakistani origins of the hijackers as well as the role of Pakistani officials posted in Kathmandu. We sincerely hope that Pakistan will reverse this policy of hostility towards India so that normal relations could be restored.'