BJP president Amit Shah on Friday accused his Congress counterpart Rahul Gandhi of being “insensitive” and of questioning the wisdom of his own party leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as they had endorsed the decision to release Masood Azhar after the Kandahar hijack at an all-party meeting.
Mr. Shah said this in a blog on his website after Mr. Gandhi attacked the BJP on its “diplomatic failure” in getting Azhar listed as a global terrorist by the UN and late Prime Minister Vajpayee government’s decision to release Azhar in exchange for Indian hostages in the hijack.
“The fact is that the Congress’ stand on terrorism, separatism and Naxalism has always been vacillating. Even senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit has acknowledged that policies of Manmohan Singh were soft compared to those of the Modi government on terrorism,” Mr. Shah said.
Ms. Dikshit said on Thursday that her comments were twisted by a section of media. “By raising the ‘unnecessary’ issue of Masood’s release from jail by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in 1999 the Congress has triggered a debate on such decisions taken in past,” Mr. Shah said.
Noting that Vajpayee had called an all-party meeting after an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked, Mr. Shah said the decision to free Masood was taken with the consent of leaders of all political parties.