We arrested Masood Azhar, but BJP freed him, says Congress

NEW DELHI: With Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday saying Congress had arrested Masood Azhar, who later founded the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed while BJP released him, the opposition party put out a 2010 interview of national security advisor Ajit Doval in which he had said releasing Azhar was a “political decision”.

Congress cited extracts from the interview to claim Doval “blamed” the BJP-led government for Azhar’s release in the Kandahar swap following the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814.

“Modi government’s NSA Ajit Doval ‘spills the beans’. Doval said (in the interview) ‘releasing Masood Azhar was a political decision’,” Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter. In the same interview, Doval had also said he did not agree with the decision to release Azhar.

Congress’s attack came a day after BJP latched on to Rahul’s reference to the JeM chief as “Masood Azhar ji”. The party accused BJP of doublespeak and put out a video of Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad referring to LeT chief Hafiz Saeed as “Hafiz ji” during a press conference. It also challenged Modi and his ministers to admit to being “anti-national” for freeing a dreaded terrorist.

Congress also sought to take credit for Doval’s statement in the 2010 interview that the UPA, after coming to power in 2004, put in place a “no concessions” policy on hijacking. Tipping his hat to Doval for acknowledging the “real nationalistic policy of Congress-UPA to tackle terror”, Surjewala asked Modi why the BJP government “did not show the same guts”.